Sonnet Poetry
History of the Sonnet Form
Characteristics of Major Sonnet Forms
- 13th Century: The #sonnet is invented in Italy and named for the Italian word sonetto, meaning “little song.”
- 14th Century: The
famous Italian poet Francesco Petrarch develops the sonnet to a high form when
he writes about an idealized lady named Laura.
- 16th Century: Sir Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard, the Earl of Surrey, introduce the sonnet to England. They adjust the rhyme scheme and meter to accommodate the English language. This new art form strongly influences numerous English poets including Edmund Spenser, Phillip Sidney, Mary Wroth, and William Shakespeare.
- 1609: Shakespeare’s collection of 154 sonnets is published. He uses these sonnets to practice writing during a time when the theaters are unpopular in England. His collection demonstrates how talented he is at both following Petrarchan conventions and changing them to suit his dramatic purposes.
Characteristics of Major Sonnet Forms
Characteristic
Number of Lines Rhythm pattern Rhyme scheme of first octave Rhyme schemes of last sextet |
Petrarchan Sonnet Structure
14 lines Iambic pentameter (each line contains 5 iambs—a weak syllable followed by a strong syllable) abbaabba cdecde cdcdcd cddcdd cddece |
English Sonnet Structure
14 lines Iambic pentameter ababcdcd efefgg |
Famous Sonneteers
Notable English Sonneteers
Sir Thomas Wyatt Henry Howard Edmund Spenser Phillip Sidney Mary Wroth William Shakespeare |
More English Sonneteers
John Donne John Milton Williams Wordsworth W.H. Auden Dylan Thomas |
American Sonneteers
Emma Lazarus Elizabeth Barrett Browning Robert Frost Edna St. Vincent Millay John Crowe Ramson |
Famous Sonnets
William Shakespeare’s
Most Famous Sonnet Sonnet 18 Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer's lease hath all too short a date: Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimm'd; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimm'd; But thy eternal summer shall not fade Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st; Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st; So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. |
Emma Lazarus’ (American) Petrarchan Sonnet
on The Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor The New Colossus Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land to land; Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame. "Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" |
W. H. Auden (English Poet) Sonnet
In Time of War He turned his field into a meeting-place, And grew the tolerant ironic eye, And formed the mobile money-changer’s face, And found the notion of equality. And strangers were as brothers to his clocks, And with his spires he made a human sky; Museums stored his learning like a box, And paper watched his money like a spy. It grew so fast his life was overgrown, And he forgot what once it had been made for, And gathered into crowds and was alone, And lived expensively and did without, And could not find the earth which he had paid for, Nor feel the love that he knew all about. |
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (American) Sonnet
How do I love thee? How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight For the ends of being and ideal grace. I love thee to the level of every day’s Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light. I love thee freely, as men strive for right. I love thee purely, as they turn from praise. I love thee with the passion put to use In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith. I love thee with a love I seemed to lose With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath, Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death. |