Development of Sonnet Form in England 2

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PRESENTATION

BY

CALIDA R.D¶SOUZA



Development of Sonnet Form InEngland

The sonnet is one of the poetic forms that can be found inlyric poetry from EuropeThe term " sonnet " derives from the Occitian word sonet and the Italian word sonetto , both meaning "little song"Sir Thomas Wyatt who initiated the sonnet tradition inEngland, gave the Petrarchan mode a refreshingly new

orientationWyatt introduced the sonnet into English, it was Surreywho gave them the rhyming meter, and division intoquatrains that now characterizes the English sonnet.



Wyatt in place of the octave- sestet pattern hesubstituted the three quatrains invigorated by theconcluding couplet.This form was adapted by Shakespeare later.Sir Philip Sydney¶s sequence Astrophel and Stella(1591) that started the English vogue for sonnet

sequences.

In the 17th century, the sonnet was adapted to otherpurposes, with John Donne and George Herbert writingreligious sonnets, and John Milton using the sonnet as ageneral meditative poem. Both the Shakespearean andPetrarchan rhyme schemes were popular throughoutthis period, as well as many variants.



The fashion for the sonnet went out with the restoration,and hardly any sonnets were written between 1670 andWordsworth¶s timeWordsworth himself wrote several sonnets, of which thebest-known are ³The World is too much with us" andthe sonnet to Milton; his sonnets were essentially

modelled on Milton'sShelley innovated radically, creating his own rhyme

scheme for the sonnet ³Ozymandias".

Gerald Manley Hopkins wrote several major sonnets,often in sprung rhythum, of which the greatest is "TheWindhover,"



This flex ibi lity wa s extended even furt h er in t h e20t h century. Among t h e major poet s of t h e earlyModern is t per iod, Ro b ert Fro s t, Edna St. V incentMillay and E.E. Cumm ing s all u s ed t h e s onnetregularly.W.B.Yeat s wrote t h e major s onnet Leda and t h e

Swan, whi

ch

us

edh

alf r h

ymes

. Wilfred Owen

s's s onnet Ant h em for Doomed Yout h wa s anot h er

s onnet of t h e early 20t h century.W.H. Auden wrote two s onnet s equence s and

s everal ot h er s onnet s th roug h out his career, andw idened t h e range of r h yme- s c h eme s u s edcon si dera b ly.



Elizabethan Sonnet Tradition

The harvest of Elizabethan sonneteering is a strangemedley of splendour and dullness. The workers in thefield included Sidney, Spenser and Shakespeare, who, invarying degrees, invested this poetic form withunquestionable beauty.

Shakespeare, above all, breathed into the sonnet a lyricmelody and a meditative energy which no writer of anycountry has surpassed.



Surrey contributed to English poetry a certain smoothand controlled dignity and was responsible fornaturalizing the English sonnet.

The form went out of vogue for well over a quartercentury after Surrey.Sir Philip Sydney initiated a revival of the Petrachanpattern.

Sidney¶s sense of contemporary reality and technicalefficiency packed his poetry with power that came tosignalize the Elizabethan lyric modeSidney¶s sonnet sequence Astrophel and Stella generateda great flood of Elizabethan sonneteering.After Sidney the Italian form lost its vitality except forSpenser and Shakespeare whose sonnets becamepopular.



Amoretti by Edmund Spenser followed Sidney¶ssequence.In a Spenserian sonnet there does not appear to be arequirement that the initial octave set up a problem thatthe closing sestet answers, as is the case with aPetrarchan sonnet. Instead, the form is treated as three

quatrains connected by the interlocking rhyme schemeand followed by a couplet. The linked rhymes of hisquatrains suggest the linked rhymes of such Italianforms as terza rima .

The Petrarchan sonnet and Elizabethan sonnet has onething in common . Both the sonnets of Petrarch labeledfragments by the author and the consideration of convention rather than by a general principle of

organization.



SHAKESPEAREAN SONNE T SThe Shakespearean sonnet, the form of sonnet utilizedthroughout Shakespeare's sequence, is divided into fourparts.The first three parts are each four lines long, and areknown as quatrains, rhymed ABAB; the fourth part iscalled the couplet, and is rhymed CC.The Shakespearean sonnet is often used to develop asequence of metaphors or ideas, one in each quatrain,while the couplet offers either a summary or a new takeon the preceding images or ideas.His sonnets were not literary exercises but personalcommunications from the most sensitive poet of the age,to a friend whom he loved.



The sonnets deal with Shakespeare¶s affection to hisfriend : they urge him to marry and immortalize hisbeauty.They also speak of a rival poetSome poems are addressed to A Dark Lady

There are 154 sonnets.Of these 126 are about this friend .The remaining 28 are to or about a Dark Lady who

was his mistress and whom he loved.



Of the 126 sonnets in the 1 st group the first 17 urge theyoung man to marry and reproduce his beauty.The group of sonnets with a 12line poem Sonnet no.126.18 of the sonnets refer to the betrayal by his friend andMistress, the Dark Lady.Ten of these are in the first group of his friend, eight are

in the second.There are 10 sonnets b/w numbers 76 and 97 which referto a rival poet. competing for the favors of his friend.



Who was this Friend ?

There are two leading candidates forconsideration as the friend: Henry

WriothesleyThird Earl of SouthamptonWilliam Herbert, Third Earl of Pembroke



Who was the Rival PoetMic h ael Drayton (1563-1631): poet of con si dera b letalent w h o wrote s onnet s , ode s (after t h e manner of t h eRoman poet Horace), and h ero ic poem s .

Ch r is top h er Marlowe (1564-1593): El iz a b et h anplaywr ig h t of t h e f ir s t rank w h o h elped popular iz e t h es trengt hs of b lank ver s e. Marlowe 's mo s t famou s play s are The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus (1588), TheJew of Malta (1589), and Tamburlaine the Great (1587).Marlowe al s o wrote d is t ingu ish ed poetry and, l ikeCh apman, tran s lated anc ient l iterary work s .



The Dark Lady

Jane Davenant: Wife of the owner of The Crown Inn onCornmarket Street in at Oxford. (The inn still exists.) Supposedly,Shakespeare stopped at the inn on trips between Stratford andLondon. Shakespeare was the godfather of her child, WilliamDavenant (1606-1668), a playwright and poet of some renown in

his day. In 1638, Davenant became poet laureate of England afterthe death of Ben Jonson. Rumors abounded that Davenant wasnot only Shakespeare's godson but also his biological son.According to some accounts, Davenant once owned the famousChandos portrait of William Shakespeare.

Mary Fitton (1578-1647): Woman of dark complexion whoenjoyed a place in the court of Queen Elizabeth I and was marriedand widowed twice. She gave birth to three illegitimate childrenfathered by three men



Ex ample for Sonnets Addressed To

A Young ManShakespeare's first 26 sonnets are clearlyaddressed to a young man whom the poetdescribes as "b eauty's rose " (Sonnet 1) and oftenrefers to as "my love .



FROM fairest creatures we desire increase,That thereby beauty's rose might never die,

But as the riper should by time decease,His tender heir might bear his memory:

But thou, contracted to thine own bright eyes,Feed'st thy light'st flame with self-substantial fuel,

Making a famine where abundance lies,

Thyself thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel.Thou that art now the world's fresh ornamentAnd only herald to the gaudy spring,

Within thine own bud buriest thy contentAnd, tender churl, makest waste in niggarding.

Pity the world, or else this glutton be,To eat the world's due, by the grave and thee.



2When forty winters shall beseige thy brow,And dig deep trenches in thy beauty's field,Thy youth's proud livery, so gazed on now,Will be a tatter'd weed, of small worth held:Then being ask'd where all thy beauty lies,

Where all the treasure of thy lusty days,To say, within thine own deep-sunken eyes,

Were an all-eating shame and thriftless praise.How much more praise deserved thy beauty's use,

If thou couldst answer 'This fair child of mine

Shall sum my count and make my old excuse,'Proving his beauty by succession thine!

This were to be new made when thou art old,

And see thy blood warm when thou feel'st it cold



To A Rival Poet85

My tongue-tied Muse in manners holds her still,While comments of your praise, richly compiled,Reserve their character with golden quillAnd precious phrase by all the Muses filed.I think good thoughts whilst other write good words,And like unletter'd clerk still cry 'Amen'To every hymn that able spirit affordsIn polish'd form of well-refined pen.Hearing you praised, I say ''Tis so, 'tis true,'

And to the most of praise add something more;But that is in my thought, whose love to you,Though words come hindmost, holds his rank before.Then others for the breath of words respect,Me for my dumb thoughts, speaking in effect



The Dark Lady130My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;Coral is far more red than her lips' red;If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.

I have seen roses damask'd, red and white,But no such roses see I in her cheeks;And in some perfumes is there more delightThan in the breath that from my mistress reeks.I love to hear her speak, yet well I knowThat music hath a far more pleasing sound;I grant I never saw a goddess go;My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare

As any she belied with false compare



T HANK

YOU

Development of Sonnet Form in England 2

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