Sonnet

SONNET

Sonnet is a fixed form and it was used by Petrarch. It consists of 14 lines, divided into two quatrains with two rhymes and two tercets with two or three rhymes. Sonnet originated in Italy in the 14^th century and spread to Europe over the next two centuries. Sir Thomas Wyatt became aware of Italian poetry when he visited Italy. He translated several sonnet by Petrarch and was the first British writer to use this poetic form.

When he introduced the sonnet in England, he divided the final six lines into a quatrain and a couplet (that is two rhyming lines).

The number of syllables per line are eleven in the Italian sonnet (hendecasyllable) and ten in the English sonnet (iambic pentameter).

Dante's and Petrarch's sonnets were imitated by English poets. The traditional theme of Italian sonnets was not-requited love: the poet loved a woman but he was desperate because she didn't love him. Only with Shakespeare we have poetical sonnet which presents something new.

The standard theme of the Renaissance sonnets was that of courtly love: poets expressed their passion for an unattainable lady and explored various aspects of their own emotions. Sometimes these sonnets had an encomiastic value. Other recurrent minor themes were their lady's beauty and virtues, transience of life, the immortalising power of poetry.

The subject was developed either as a monologue, with an apostrophe to someone, or as a dialogue, or a narration, very often in argumentative form. The discourse was characterized by the division into quatrains and tercets (Petrarchan sonnet), or quatrains and couplet (English sonnet), with each group of lines presenting one aspect of argument. Meaning of sonnet was expressed through rhetorical figures (metaphors, paradoxes, similes,). The final couplet could become an epigram. The language was that of the poetic diction with ornate polysyllabic Latinate words.

Sidney and his sonnet.

Sir Philip Sidney's Astrophel and Stella is the first sequence of English sonnets, that is, a series of sonnets linked together by exploring various aspects of a relationship between lovers. They are about the unhappy love of Astrophel (lover of a star) and Stella (star). The Sidney's sonnet contains an apostrophe to Stella, who possesses beauty, virtue and light of reason. Stella's description follows the Petrarchan conventions of the idealised lady; but the sexual explicitness in the last line is an ironical comment on the poem's content. The rhyme scheme is that of the English sonnet; but the syntax follows the division of the Italian sonnet - two quatrains and two tercets.

In the sonnet LXXI we can find a paradox, in fact virtue is best lodged with beauty and there are some proofs: Stella's fairness shows goodness and she possesses sovereignty of reason whose light shines in her eyes and defeats all vices; then Stella's perfection is a model for those who admire her beauty. At the end we can find a conclusion - by loving Stella for her beauty, lover is led to virtue - and a contradiction: the lover's desire is eager for sexual fulfilment.

In the text we can find a lot of metaphors: Stella is compared to a beautiful book, the night birds are compared to vices and the inward sun is compared to reason.

Sonnet CXXX by William Shakespeare.

Shakespeare is very famous because of his sonnets. The English sonnet was brought to perfection with Shakespeare. He wrote 154 sonnets. Most of them are dedicated to a woman called "Dark Lady". The reason why she has this nickname is that she was dark in her hair and in all her complexion. The other part of Shakespeare's sonnets is dedicated to a young man; we his name is unknown, but we know its initial words: W.H. From his sonnet we can say that there was a homosexual feeling between Shakespeare and this young man.

Sonnet CXXX is dedicated to the "Dark Lady". It is very different from the other sonnets of Shakespeare's time. It is not conventional and presents something new.

From a physical point of view women's were very beautiful in all the sonnets of English production. Instead Shakespeare's woman is completely different, her beauty is not conventional, but presents something special. We can notice this in sonnet CXXX. the themes in each quatrain are:

"mistress eyes are nothing like the sun"; her lips are not red like coral; her breasts are not white like snow, but dun; her hair are not gold, but black wires;

her cheeks have not the colour of red and white roses and her breath doesn't smell like natural perfumes which are more delicious;

the sound of her voice is not melodious and pleasing like music and her  way of walking is not graceful, goddess-like, even floating in the air.

In the couplet there is a shift, in fact Shakespeare uses a very serious tone, while before it was joking and ironic. Here he expresses a judgement on the other poets who have exaggerated when they have described their woman. Shakespeare's beloved is ordinary and realistic but she is superior and rarer then the women praised by the insincere, exaggerated comparisons of the conventional love sonnets.

While from the point of view of the theme and the content the sonnet is not perfect because the woman is not perfect and beautiful, from the formal point of view it is perfect:

there is a perfect iambic pentameter (syllables are always ten in each line);

the rhyme scheme is ABAB-CDCD-EFEF-GG;

each quatrain ends with a full stop;

in the third and the forth lines there are 2 sentences but the number of syllables doesn't change; there is a parallelism between this two lines; the syntax structure changes and there is a phenomena which regards the rhythm that is an acceleration;

in the second quatrain the structure changes because of an enjambment which breaks the syntactical union. This different organisation of the speech makes the rhythm speeder;

also in the third quatrain there is an enjambment; here the tone becomes more dialogue.

"A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" by John Donne. 

The poem is one of Donne 's love lyrics which were published as Songs and Sonnets. The poet wrote this poem for his wife before leaving for France. The poet uses a sort of philosophical language: in fact he is the originator of Metaphysical school and to understood his poetry it is important to know three terms: wit, conceit and metaphysical.

wit it has changed its meanings with time. Originally it meant mind and then intellect and mental faculties. In the 17^th century it came to mean the capacity to relate unlike ideas and implied intellectual cleverness and ingenuity.

conceits through their use poets could display their wit. Conceits are comparison between objects which seem to have nothing in common. They are typical of Donne's poetry in particular and of metaphysical poetry in general.

metaphysical the critical term metaphysical was used for the first time by John Dryden who complained that Donne used the language of philosophical speculation (metaphysics) in contexts (love poetry) where it sounded inappropriate: Donne engaged the mind  while he should have engaged only the heart.

The characteristics of Donne's love poetry are:

argumentative quality of his love poems. Donne often argues with the woman addressed and tries to persuade her to share this or that point of view. For example in the text the speaker attempts to persuade his beloved not to mourn though they have to part.

dramatic quality