The Sonnet
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The Sonnet at a Glance
It isa p o e m o f f o u r t e e n lines, u s u a l l y i a m b i c .
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There are two kinds o f sonnet, with very different histories
2)
behind their different forms: the Petrarchan and the
Shakespearean.
3) The Petrarchan sonnet is I t a l i a n i n origin, has an octave o f
eight lines and a sestet o f six. T h e r h y m e scheme o f the octave
is ababcdcd and o f the sestet cdecde.
4) The Shakespearean sonnet was developed in England and
has far m o r e than just surface differences f r o m the
Petrarchan.
5) The rhyme scheme o f the Shakespearean sonnet is
ababcdcdefefgg. There is no octave/sestet structure to it. The
inal couplet is a defining feature.
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The History o f the F o r m
he sonnet?s origins are in the small, sunlit courts o f Sicily, [y
lingered there for two hundred years before it made the
journey into English poetry.
T h e w i l d f i r e and historic development o f the f o r m began when
Francesco Petrarca, who lived in Tuscany and was born in 1304, pub-
lished his Canzoniere, a sequence o f 366 poems, 317 o f which were
sonnets to an idealized lover, called Laura. Petrarch had been infly-
enced by Dante.
W i t h their wit, their yearning, and their ability to make a narra-
tive out o f a necklace o f short poems, Canzoniere became a European
bestseller. By the time o f Petrarch?s death in 1374, his circle o f influ-
ence included Chaucer and Boccaccio.
It was the Italian originators who developed one o f the features o f
the sonnet that survives to the present day, the octave and sestet di-
vision: One strong opening statement o f eight lines is followed by a
resolution to the emotional or intellect irst part o f
€ poem-Fitis shape madethe sonnetaself-sufficient form, open to
shades of mood and tone. They also established the rhyme scheme ab-
baabba in octave and cdecde in the sestet. This degree o f close and
the
repetitive rhyme, in turn, reflected the rich resources o f Italian
rhyme.
The sonnet took time to come to England. When it did it fell into
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The Sonnet « 57
Thomas Wyatt a doomed master and one of its first
nds of
pe ba? here, who adapted it to his own uses and talents: He
sons : .
h a e eerarchan octave b u t 1 rhyming c o u p l e t at t h e
, edt h e r e m p o r a r y a n d f r i e n d t h e E a r l o f S u r r e y also i n t r o d u c e d
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woot es into it. I n I t a l i a n t h e r e w e r e o n l y five rhymes. A f t e r
- m
more 4 Surrey the sonnet could have seven?a change that ben-
tran
ya actitioners in a language w i t h less abundant rhymes than
efite
d pt
jraliat- . onnct away from the
t
wy etrarchan form, gave
slight!
= -esonance to the énding; through the éften declamatory cou-
ew! .
" By Shakespeare's m e , this couplet was often the loudest, most
ples
|o f the sonnet.
part |
O e o w e r f u l and enriching development o f the sonnet in the
i ething to the fact that it pre-
razed poeerwith this choice, On the one hand, there was the Shake-
n ;
t, with itst h r e e quatrains a n d final couplet, which
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images t o d
allowed a fai e associatio .
a
- o n _ O r t h e r e w a s t h e P e t r a r c h a n s o n n e t as M i l t o n used it i n
a " . . .
?On H i s B l i n d n e s s , ? w i t h a l l i g n i t y o f proposal an
y s
The Contemporary Cony
t
none level, the sonnet suits our world. Des
Pite thefac t
its origins are in the formality and decory M
ofItalian
poetry, it has kept pace with some o f th . Our
€ most importa,
developments in modern poetry.
To start with it is short, easily comprehended and itshis
toricStruc.
ture still opens the way for living debate and subtle a rgu
MENt. One
of the characteristics of recent poetic history, on both side
Sof the At.
lantic, has been a tension between lyric and narrative, T
he sonnet js
able to take its place in the debate: to suggest narrative progres,
through its sequence structure, while, in single units, it is capable of
the essential lyric qualities of being musical, brief, and memorable.
Contemporary poets, for over two hundred years, have continued
to be drawn to the sonnet. But few modern poets have been willing
to commit themselves to the major, architectural sequences o f a Pe-
trarch or a Shakespeare. Instead the sonnet?with either the couplet
at the end or the octave/sestet structure?has become a part o f speech.
Many poets have used it at one time or another, Some o f the finest
sonnets in the language have been written b o e t s who were only oc-
~~ T E R g H BE argUeI THAT aT occaRional form is what it has become:
a fossil o f its former life. Its imagistic compression o f a r g u m e n t re-
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68 » Verse F o r m ,
that if the kingdom crumbles one ¢,
n Yielq
and have the choice again. Abstract and
joined in their trance of thought, tWo Tea] pI
a
the calm of gods above a troubled fielg ers Shoy,
SEAMUS HEANEy
The Haw Lantern
The wintry haw is burning out o f season
crab of the thorn, a small light for small peo
wanting no more from them but that they Le
the wick of self-respect from dying out, p
not having to blind them with illumination,
But sometimes when your breath plumes in the §
it takes the roaming shape o f Diogenes Tost
with his lantern, seeking one just man;
so you end up scrutinized from behind the haw
he holds up at eye-level on its twig,
and you flinch before its bonded pith and stone,
its blood-prick that you wish would test and clear yoy
its pecked-at ripeness that scans you, then moves on,
D E N I S J O H N S O N
Heat
Here in the electric dusk your naked lover
tips the glass high and the ice cubes fall against her teeth,
It?s beautiful Susan, her hair sticky with gin,
Our Lady of Wet Glass-Rings on the Album Cover,
streaming with hatred in the heat
as the record falls and the snake-band chords begin
to break like terrible news from the Rolling Stones,
and such a last l i g h t ? f u l l o f spheres and zones.
August,
you?re just an erotic hallucination,
just so much feverishly produced kazoo music,
are youserious? ?this large oven impersonating night,
this exhaustion mutilated to resemble passion,
The Sonnet + 69
moon o f tenderness and magic
the b o g
y o u hold out to each prisoner like a cup o f light?
H E N R I COLE
T h e Roman Baths at N i m e s
In the hall of mirrors nobody speaks.
An ember smolders before hollowed cheeks.
Someone empties pockets, loose change and keys,
into a locker. M y god, forgive me.
Some say love, disclosed, repels what it sees,
yet i f | touch the darkness, it touches me.
In the steamroom, inconsolable tears
fall against us. In the whirlpool, my arms,
rowing through little green crests, help to steer
the body, riding against death. Yet what harm
is there in us? I swear to you, my friend,
crossarmed in a bright beach towel, turning round
to see my face in lamplight, that eye, ear
and tongue, good things, make something sweet of fear.
M A R Y JO S A L T E R
H a l f a D o u b l e Sonnet
for Ben
T h e i r ordeal over, now the only trouble
was conveying somehow to a boy of three
that for a week or two he?d be seeing double.
Surely he wouldn't recall the surgery
years later, but what about the psychic scars?
And so, when the patch came off, they bought the toy
he?d wanted most. He held it high. ?Two cars!?
he cried; and drove himself from joy to joy.
T w o baby sisters . . . One was enough o f Clare,
but who could complain? ?considering that another
woman had stepped forward to take care
of the girls, which left h i m all alone with Mother.
Victory! Even when he went to pee,
he was seconded in his virility.