Writing Help 129 | - ☆ Freelance Writer
Apr 08, 2013 | #1
Poetic Terms You Have to Learn
For many, the term sonnet remains synonymous with poetry itself, and while there are countless forms poetry can take, this compact and expressive form dominates the imagination of many. Few, if any, poetic forms have remained so intimately associated with the expression of a single emotion and passion, but the sonnet has not lost its vigor and beauty despite its being put to work in the almost exclusive service of one goal; the sonnet, of course, is the very form of the romantic reflection, desire, and promise. This was the purpose for which it was originally created more than seven-hundred years ago, and it serves this purpose just as well today as it did then.
The word sonnet comes from the Italian sonetto, which means "little sound" or "little song," which is not surprising considering its melodic tones. The founder of the famous form is considered to be Giacomo da Lentino, who was an important member of a group of poets known as the Sicilian School in the early thirteenth century, and the earliest sonnets we have come from his pen. The most famous early practitioner of the form was another Italian, the renowned Francesco Petrarca, or Petrarch, who lived and wrote about one hundred years after Lentino.
It is our usual understanding that when an individual invents something, it is named after him or her, if it is named after anyone at all. However, in the realm of poetry, it is not usually the inventor of a form who gets the credit of its name, but rather the most popular and successful practitioners of the form. While the sonnet, as we discussed above, is not named for an individual, its three distinct forms are. The original Italian model consisting of 14 lines divided into stanzas of eight and six lines (an octave and a sestet), with the rhyme scheme abbaabba cdecde (or cdcdcd) is known as the Petrarchan. This form is what Sir Thomas Wyatt and the Earl of Surry imported into the English language in the early 1500s, bur probably because of the complexity and frequency of the rhymes (far more difficult to achieve in English than Italian), it did not become popular or well known in English till almost one hundred years later, long after Surry's important innovation which changed the form to three quartets and a couplet, rhyming abab cdcd efef gg. As was the case with Lentino, Surry did not have this form named after him, and another legendary figure, this time William Shakespeare himself, has the distinction of having that form named for him. The final form, which looks like a hybrid of the other two in its rhyme and structure, is named for another famous and popular practitioner, Edmund Spenser. This version is also divided into three four-line stanzas and a two-line end, rhyming abab bcbc cdcd ee. The interlocking structure gives the poem more rhymes on each word, like the Petrarchan, but divides the stanzas like the Shakespearian. The Shakespearian, likely because of the skill and popularity of its namesake, as well as the relative simplicity of its rhyme-scheme in English, became the dominant form, and when English speakers use the term sonnet without any qualifying adjectives, they are referring to this form.
Like most enduring forms, the sonnet did have a period through the 17th and 18th centuries where its popularity diminished, but the 19th century saw a remarkable resurgence, and some of the most memorable and enjoyable poetry from the Romantic and Victorian periods, penned by the likes of Wordsworth, Keats, and Browning, is in sonnet form.
The Sonnet
For many, the term sonnet remains synonymous with poetry itself, and while there are countless forms poetry can take, this compact and expressive form dominates the imagination of many. Few, if any, poetic forms have remained so intimately associated with the expression of a single emotion and passion, but the sonnet has not lost its vigor and beauty despite its being put to work in the almost exclusive service of one goal; the sonnet, of course, is the very form of the romantic reflection, desire, and promise. This was the purpose for which it was originally created more than seven-hundred years ago, and it serves this purpose just as well today as it did then.
The word sonnet comes from the Italian sonetto, which means "little sound" or "little song," which is not surprising considering its melodic tones. The founder of the famous form is considered to be Giacomo da Lentino, who was an important member of a group of poets known as the Sicilian School in the early thirteenth century, and the earliest sonnets we have come from his pen. The most famous early practitioner of the form was another Italian, the renowned Francesco Petrarca, or Petrarch, who lived and wrote about one hundred years after Lentino.It is our usual understanding that when an individual invents something, it is named after him or her, if it is named after anyone at all. However, in the realm of poetry, it is not usually the inventor of a form who gets the credit of its name, but rather the most popular and successful practitioners of the form. While the sonnet, as we discussed above, is not named for an individual, its three distinct forms are. The original Italian model consisting of 14 lines divided into stanzas of eight and six lines (an octave and a sestet), with the rhyme scheme abbaabba cdecde (or cdcdcd) is known as the Petrarchan. This form is what Sir Thomas Wyatt and the Earl of Surry imported into the English language in the early 1500s, bur probably because of the complexity and frequency of the rhymes (far more difficult to achieve in English than Italian), it did not become popular or well known in English till almost one hundred years later, long after Surry's important innovation which changed the form to three quartets and a couplet, rhyming abab cdcd efef gg. As was the case with Lentino, Surry did not have this form named after him, and another legendary figure, this time William Shakespeare himself, has the distinction of having that form named for him. The final form, which looks like a hybrid of the other two in its rhyme and structure, is named for another famous and popular practitioner, Edmund Spenser. This version is also divided into three four-line stanzas and a two-line end, rhyming abab bcbc cdcd ee. The interlocking structure gives the poem more rhymes on each word, like the Petrarchan, but divides the stanzas like the Shakespearian. The Shakespearian, likely because of the skill and popularity of its namesake, as well as the relative simplicity of its rhyme-scheme in English, became the dominant form, and when English speakers use the term sonnet without any qualifying adjectives, they are referring to this form.
Like most enduring forms, the sonnet did have a period through the 17th and 18th centuries where its popularity diminished, but the 19th century saw a remarkable resurgence, and some of the most memorable and enjoyable poetry from the Romantic and Victorian periods, penned by the likes of Wordsworth, Keats, and Browning, is in sonnet form.