Sonnet: A brief chronological sketch.

Indranil Sarkar
11/1/2012 11:51:14 PM/Wedness day.

Defn. & Etymology: Basically a Sonnet is a subjective love-lyric of 14 lines. The term sonnet has been rooted in the French word Sonetto which came from Italian word Sonetto or from Old Provencal sonnet; it is a diminutive of son, song, from Latin sonus, a sound;i The Italian term Sonetto means a little strain which has been viewed as a moments monument by D.G.Rossetti. Its impact is similar to that of a ripple created by a pebble-throw into a calm pond. Origin: Sonnets originated not in Italy as traditionally believed but in Sicily as a Sicilian song-form, as early as the 12th century. Piero delle Vigne and Giacomo de Lentini, head of the Sicilian School under Emperor Frederick 11ii, in the early thirteenth century produced the initial written forms of the sonnet as we would recognize them today. However, Guittone dArezzo (1230-94)iii first used the classical Italian sonnet (a strict ABBAABBACDCDCD rhyme scheme). Guittone dArezzo rediscovered it and brought it to Tuscany where he adapted it to his language when he founded the Neo-Sicilian School (12351294). He wrote almost 250 sonnets. However, this form reached perfection later in the sonnets of Dante

Alighieri (1265-1321) and Guido Cavalcanti (c.1250-1300). But, truly speaking the Sonnet form reached its zenith in the hands of Petrarch or Petrarca (1304-74)iv. Michael Angelo also wrote a number of good sonnets.v Thematic Horizons of Sonnets: The basic theme of Sonnet was love. Traditionally the sonneteers expressed their love emotions/sentiments towards their beloved in a sonnet. As a particular sonnet could express a single emotion and as it was not to cover all the changing moods, so the sonneteers had to write a series of sonnets to express all their feelings and sentiments, passions and emotions. These sonnets were called Sonnet sequence. It was also became a tradition to give a particular title to a sonnet sequence.Thus, Dantes sonnet cycle was named VitaNuova while Canzoniere was the name of the sonnet sequence of Petrarch. Dante addressed his beloved Beatrice in his sonnets while Petrarch addressed his mistress Laura in his sonnet sequence. Petrarch was the first to extol the real virtues of the sonnet. His Rime to Laura which was nothing but a pun on the word laurel, established the essential romantic form and stylistic model of the sonnet as we see of it today. Sonnets in English: Sonnet came to England in the last quarter of the sixteenth century. It came like a tremendous storm and generated unprecedented impact on the English mind. It became a craze
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among the English youths to write sonnets. Most of them, however, were simply imitators or copiers of Italian sonneteers for which Sir Sidney Lee called them a mosaic of plagiarisms, a medley of imitative or assimilative poems. And Sir J.M.Robertson condemned the Elizabethan sonneteers as a case of parrots. It was Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503-42) and Henry Howard, the Earl of Surrey who first used sonnets to express personal feeling without taking recourse to allegory or fiction. In the hands of these two English poets, the form underwent a noticeable change. Surrey adopted a rhyme scheme widely different from the Italian form. His sonnets were of three quatrains, in alternate rhymes followed by a concluding couplet;(a b a b; c d c d; e f e e f; gg ). This Sonnet form was later perfected by Shakespeare and was given the name of Shakespearean Sonnet. And this style has also come to be known as English Sonnet. In the 17th century, Edmund Spenser evolved a new variety of Sonnets. The Spenserian sonnets were named after Edmund Spenser. These sonnets were similar to the Shakespearian Sonnet in construction but different only in their rhyme scheme. Like the Shakespearian sonnets, the Spenserian sonnets were also written in three quatrains and a couplet. The meter was iambic pentameter. The Spenserian rhyme scheme was more repetitive than the Shakespearian, but without the same variety of rhyming sounds. The rhyme scheme in general was abab bcbc cdcd ee.vii

Although a Sonnet is preordained to be a poem of 14 lines having the theme of love, yet experimentation in this genre has not been restricted. During the passage of the last 750 years, it has undergone various innovations or modifications both in thematic and in stylistic fronts. There were three main categories of SonnetsPetrarchan,

Shakespearean and Spenserian uptil Milton. Petrarchan Sonnets were also called Italian Sonnets. In a typical Petrarchan sonnet there were 14 lines divided into two parts. First 8 lines having alternate rhyme scheme were called Octave and the next 6 lines were called a Sestet or sextet. In general, the Octave was the proposition of a problem while the Sestet or the Sextet furnished the conclusion. These sonnets were generally written in iambic pentameters. There was a break or pause in between the two parts. The 9th line, very often the punch line of the sonnet, was called the Volta. Petrarchan sonnets were quite different from the Shakespearean and a couplet. or Spenserian sonnets. Petrarchan sonnets possessed two quatrains and two tercets instead of three quatrains The tercets usually acted to provide a new perspective or a twist to the ideas presented in the first two quatrains. Petrarchan sonnets were also often written in iambic pentameter. Their usual rhyme scheme was abba abba cde cde.
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English Sonnets were basically the Sonnet style popularized by William Shakespeare. Shakespeare wrote altogether 154 sonnets in between 1593 and 1597.He brought perfection to the Sonnet style of Wyatt and Surrey and gave the genre his own name. Shakespeare brought both thematic and stylistic changes in Sonnets. It was William Shakespeare who incorporated the theme of Friendship in the first 126 of his sonnets. This was quite a revolutionary step in sonnet tradition. Nobody could imagine that the theme of love between a man and a woman might be substituted by the theme of friendship between a man and his friend. Sonnets on a theme other than love initiated a new vista in Sonnet tradition. Stylistically, Shakespeare borrowed innovation by introducing 4+4+4+2=14 style. Shakespearean sonnets contained 3 quatrains followed by a couplet. The pause between the parts was called Caesura. Though he used iambic pentameter in general, yet there were a few sonnets where he could not help using tetrameter-rhyme also. Moreover, in two of his Sonnets, Shakespeare violated the fourteen line myth of the sonnet tradition. In his Sonnet no.126, he used only 12 lines instead of 14 and in sonnet no. 99, he used 15 lines quite contrary to the traditional rule. It would not be unfair to speculate that this revolutionary innovation in regard to theme and style inspired later poets like John Milton and Hopkins to use unorthodox theme and style in sonnets. Miltonic Sonnet:

Following the precedence of Shakespeare, John Milton freed sonnets from its narrower thematic limitations of love and friendship by infusing social, political and humane theme. Structurally, Miltonic sonnets became a single verse-paragraph flowing through a sound pattern made up of four divisions marked by the rhymes. Instead of writing a sonnet sequence about Love, John Milton wrote individual sonnets about serious ideas, political themes, or public occasions. In Miltonic sonnet the traditional Petrarchan sonnet form was converted by the use of enjambment. In a typical Miltonic Sonnet enjambment was used to tighten the sonnet, leaving the 14 lines unbroken by stanzas. These were of iambic pentameter. The rhyme scheme was abbaabbacdecde. Here the Pivot attained slowly after Line.no.8
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Milton wrote altogether

24 sonnets of which five were written in Latin.x However, after Milton the sonnet declined in popularity till it was taken up again with fervour during the Romantic period by poets like Wordsworth, Shelley, and Byron etc. The Romantics, quite contrary to their revolutionary outlook, stuck to the traditional sonnet form and theme. They did not initiate any change either in sonnet structure or in sonnet theme.xi Curtal or Curtail Sonnet: Inspired by the innovative adaptations of Milton, Hopkins brought a newer form to Sonnets called Curtal or Curtail sonnets. A Curtal sonnet was an eleven-line (or, more accurately, ten-and-a-half-line) sonnet. But, rather than the first eleven lines of a standard sonnet,
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it consisted of precisely of the structure of a Petrarchan sonnet shrunk proportionally; as such the octave of a sonnet became a sestet and the sestet a quatrain plus an additional "tail piece." In the preface to his Poems (1876-89), Hopkins substantiated the relationship between the Petrarchan and curtal sonnets mathematically. He told that if the Petrarchan sonnet could be described by the equation 8+6=14 then, the curtal sonnet would be:

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The matter would be easy to understand if we glance over Hopkins sonnet Pied Beauty---Glory be to God for dappled things For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow; For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim; Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches' wings; Landscape plotted and piecedfold, fallow, and plough; And ll trdes, their gear and tackle and trim. All things counter, original, spare, strange; Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?) With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim; He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change: Praise him.xiii Hopkins used this style in atleast three of his sonnets and "Pied Beauty" is considered as the best example of a Curtal sonnet.xiv

Caudate Sonnet: Another variety of Sonnet was the Caudate Sonnets. These were simply an expanded version of the Sonnet general. These sonnets consisted of 14 lines in standard sonnet forms followed by a Coda (Latin cauda meaning "tail", from which the name was derived) The credit of inventing this sonnet form had gone to Francesco Berni. According to the Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry, the form was most frequently used for satire. The most prominent English instance of Caudate Sonnet was John Miltons "On the New Forcers of Conscience Under the Long Parliament."(1646)xv . The text of the poem is cited below for a re-view of the uniqueness--On the New Forcers of Conscience Under the Long Parliament.

BEcause you have thrown of your Prelate Lord,

And with stiff Vowes renounc't his Liturgie To seise the widdow'd whore Pluralitie From them whose sin ye envi'd, not abhor'd Dare ye for this adjure the Civill Sword [ 5 ] To force our Consciences that Christ set free, And ride us with a classic Hierarchy Taught ye by meer A. S. and Rotherford?

Men whose Life, Learning, Faith and pure intent Would have been held in high esteem with Paul [ 10 ] Must now be nam'd and printed Hereticks By shallow Edwards and Scotch what d' ye call: But we do hope to find out all your tricks, Your plots and packing wors then those of Trent, That so the Parliament [ 15 ] May with their wholsom and preventive Shears Clip your Phylacteries, though bauk your Ears, And succour our just Fears When they shall read this clearly in your charge New Presbyter is but Old Priest writ Large. [ 20 ]xvi

Pushkin Sonnet: Another variety of Sonnet was the "Pushkin sonnet". These were also called Onegin stanza. Pushkin Sonnet referred to the sonnet form invented by the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin through his novel in verse Eugene Onegin. The work was mostly written in verses of iambic tetrameter with the rhyme scheme "aBaBccDDeFFeGG". The lowercase letters represented feminine endings (i.e., with an additional unstressed syllable) while the uppercase represented masculine ending(i.e. stressed on the final syllable).xvii This form was called a "mettlesome creature" and A.D.P

Briggs in his introduction to Evgeny Onegin stated that Pushkin invented a sonnet form which could go either way becoming Italian or English at the flick of a switch in mid stanza. The Octave rhymed---a. b.a. b.....c.c. d.d..... While the sestet was where the change occured and also expanded the form. The original Pushkin sestet had two tercets e.f.f.... e.g.g. and revealed direct Italian influence.xviii.The following sonnet by
Ryter Roethicle may be cited an example of Pushkin sonnet: Piper at the Gates of Dawn From the dawn of time he has played for us The music has reached our minds and hearts Telling his tales of wars won and joyous loves, Most times of defeat and how lovers part. But listen to him best at the break of dawn Hear his spirits rise each time he greets the morn See the angels gather round to hear him play As the new sun rises from the sea at start of day. See the angels fly, full of this heavenly sound The piper moves on forever bound to seek A place to rest, and stay, if only for a week There is no peace, this place cannot be found. So he moves on seeking with each fresh morn And you can see the piper at the gates of dawn.xix

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The Onegin stanzas were not divided into smaller stanzas of four lines or two in an obvious way. The sonnet could be divided into many different ways: for example, the first four lines could form a quatrain, or instead joining with the "cc" to form a set. Stretched Sonnet: The next innovation in Sonnet tradition was obviously the stretched sonnet by George Meredith. Meredith extended the length of sonnet to 16 or more lines. His Sequence of Modern Love is an example of this type of sonnets. Modern Love: II By George Meredith 18281909 It ended, and the morrow brought the task. Her eyes were guilty gates, that let him in By shutting all too zealous for their sin: Each sucked a secret, and each wore a mask. But, oh, the bitter taste her beauty had! He sickened as at breath of poison-flowers: A languid humour stole among the hours, And if their smiles encountered, he went mad, And raged deep inward, till the light was brown Before his vision, and the world, forgot, Looked wicked as some old dull murder-spot.
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(e.g)

A star with lurid beams, she seemed to crown The pit of infamy: and then again He fainted on his vengefulness, and strove To ape the magnanimity of love, And smote himself, a shuddering heap of pain.

Inverted Sonnet: Another variety of Sonnets came to be known as Inverted Sonnet. In an inverted sonnet also, there were exactly 14 lines and an opening rhyming couplet similar to that found in traditional sonnets. The remaining lines could be written in free form. A sonnet that had been split in half, with each section having its own tone and style, were also called an inverted sonnet.xxi Elizabeth Bishop was a revered name in this regard. One of her last poems was an inverted "Sonnet".

Sonnet
Caught -- the bubble in the spirit level, a creature divided; and the compass needle wobbling and wavering, undecided. Freed -- the broken thermometer's mercury running away;
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and the rainbow-bird from the narrow bevel of the empty mirror, flying wherever it feels like, gay!

Another beautiful example of an Inverted sonnet is, Inverted sonnet reconsidering travel by rail to Kampala by Matt Whiteman from Eldoret Kenya :xxii

A lone nearby cookfire slow-roasting maize Glows unaware of an impending blaze. Sorry, says the foreman from his recline As I leave his office, cluttered and dim, But passenger trains dont run on this line; Good stories of little matter to him, When sixty-tonne rail cars yearning for flight, Leave their old rails at the small stations quay, Spill crude tween parallel tracks and ignite These rivers, just spitting distance away. That thunder, dust and impossible stink Resign my desire to get there by train
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But despite all this, I cant help but think: What are the odds it could happen again?

Terrible Sonnets: Another variety of sonnets were called Terrible sonnets. These sonnets had nothing terrible in them. In spite of the label, this phrase did not refer to poorly written sonnets. Gerard Manley Hopkins used the term 'terrible sonnets' to designate several of his later religious poems, in which he felt isolated from God. In these poems, his sense of individuality led Hopkins to confront his solipsism--and react with despair (the dark night of the soul,' as described by St. Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Jesuit order).xxiii John Donnes religious sonnets also belonged to the same category. Word Sonnet: Whatsoever, the latest and most unique experimentation

/innovation in Sonnet tradition is definitely the Word Sonnets which evolved only in the last two decades of the 20th century. It is a quite new variation of the traditional form; fourteen lines long, but with only one word set for each verse. Concise and usually visual in effect, this miniature version can contain one or more sentences, at per the required articulation.xxiv In 1985, the American poet Brad Leithauser introduced the monosyllabic ironic poem entitled "Post-Coitum Tristesse". It was the first example of Word Sonnet. The most unorthodox sonnet in

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the whole domain of sonnet tradition was later included in a volume of his work and the anthology of New Formalist poetry, Rebel Angels. One of its kinds, Leithauser's Word sonnet perhaps sat a precedence for others to follow.xxv In France, in the same year (i,e 1985), the poet Ren Nelli published a collection of Word Sonnets entitled Sonnets Monosyllabiques. Following the Italian sonnet tradition, Nelli opened each poem with two quatrains, leading to two three-line concluding stanzas. Each line comprised of one monosyllabic word.xxvi Then in the late 1990s, the Menard Press in London, England, promoted the Word sonnet in a literary contest judged by the Irish writer, Augustus Young, who did much to spread word of its practice by his support of the form and the example of his own writings. This Sonnet form flourished among student and alumni writers of the English Department of the University of Ottawa at about the same time. Within the year, the Word sonnets became part of the ongoing practice of a few dozen poets. Ottawa, as a centre for haiku composition became the most active hub for the word sonnet. The Word Sonnets became very popular in the literary world and hundreds of thousands of poets are writing this type of sonnets today. The Kanata writer Glenn Kletkes fourteen words dart worked like a zigzagged row of children in "Kindergartens", while Frank Cormier's

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productions of what may be termed as "triple" and "quintuple" Word sonnets flourished by its own merit. Both the works had helped to evolve the poetic practice and sat fresh stylistic departures. Whatsoever, Susan Robertson's "Foreplay," in particular, was eyecatching and tongue in cheek: Listen, I'll slip a sonnet off the page like the clothes off my body. Word Sonnets are attractive because of their inherent inventive attraction of the form as well as for their laconic resonance.
References & Web links:
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.The Free Online Dictionary.com .en.wikipedea.org iii .en.wikipedea.org iv .en.wikipedea.org v .Seven Sonnets and a Canzone by Michelangelo Translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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. Origins of the Sonnet (Shakespearian, Petrarchan, what are they all about?) blog article by reheaded www.literature network forum
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.Prof.Grows page in websitewww.rbuhsd.k12.ca.us/~grow/Sonnets Page.html .Prof.Grows page in his websitewww.rbuhsd.k12.ca.us/~grow/Sonnets Page.html ix . www.rc.umd.edu/rchs/sonnet.htm x .en.wikipedea.org
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. The Sonnet by Melissa J. Sites

. Hopkins, Gerard Manley. The Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins, 4th edition. Ed. W.H. Gardner and N.H. Mackenzie. Oxford UP, 1967.
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xiii xiv xv.

.curtal sonnet,en.wikipedea.org .odern Language Notes 1952 The Johns Hopkins University Press

"Caudate sonnet," The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics. Ed. Alex Preminger and T.V.F. Brogan. Princeton UP, 1993.. xvi . www.dartmouth.edu/~milton/reading_room/conscience/index. xvii .wiseGeek.com xviii .Tir Na nOg Poetry Community xix . www.thepoetsgarret.com/sonnet/pushkin.html xx .Enotes.com xxi wiseGeek.com xxii . blogs.ubc.ca/.../inverted-sonnet-reconsidering-travel-by-rail-to-kamp... xxiii . www.superglossary.com/Definition/Literature/Terrible_Sonnets.html xxiv .poetic touch.com xxv . Foreplay: An Anthology of Word Sonnet Ed. by Seymour Mayne and Christal Steck
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. Foreplay: An Anthology of Word Sonnets Edited by Seymour Mayne and Christal Steck

Indranil Sarkar
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