Sonnets

Francessco Pertrarca - born on July 20th 1304

• he lived in Arezzo, Italy
• He was fixated on a woman called, Laura De Noves - writing many sonnets about his love.
• He created the Italian form of the sonnet

Italian Sonnet

• Two Stanzas
• One octave (8 lines) followed by a sestet (6 lines).
• A Volta shows this change between the two sections - a volta is a change
• the first 8 lines (octave) - arguement, observation or question]
• the 6 final lines (sestet) - clarification, answer
• rhyme scheme - abbaabbacdecde

Sir Thomas Wyatt translated the Italian Sonnet into English, during the reniassance period.

William Shakespeare - Born April 1564

• Lived in England, he created his own variation of a sonnet
• He wrote 152 sonnets - mostly on the topic of love - conventional

English Sonnet

• Three quatrains, ending with a rhyming couplet
• The couplet plays a pivotal role in the poem, it forms a conclusion, or an amplification from the previous three stanzas.
• rhyme scheme - abab,cdcd,efef,gg

John Milton - Born 9th December 1608

• He took the sonnet out of the category of 'love poems' and brought it into the world of politics and social issues at the time.
• He converted the traditional Pertrarchan Sonnet, by including the use of enjambment
• The enjambement is used to tighten the sonnet form, leaving the 14 lines unbroken by stanzas.
• conventionally iabic pentameter
• uses the Petrarchan rhyme scheme - abbaabbaacdecde
• the volta occurs around the octave

Edmund Spenser - Born 1552 - London

• Did a variation on the Shakespearean sonnet
• It has interlocking quatrains
• the couplets link throughout - changing the shakespearean sonnet slightly by adding more couplets throughout the structure.
• rhyme scheme - abab, bcbc, cdcd, ee
• This adds less pressure on the couplet at the end, easing the reader into the final couplet of the poem.