Introduction to Sonnets

Sonnets are short poems that adhere to a strict yet basic structure. All sonnets:

have 14 lines.
are written in iambic pentameter (10 syllables per line, 5 of which are stressed).
follow a set rhyme scheme or pattern.

The word “sonnet” is derived from the Italian “sonetto,” little song. Most sonnets are love poems in which an unattainable lover is praised.

A Brief History of the Sonnet

14th Century Italy

Poet Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) developed the sonnet form to write of his love for Laura, who unfortunately was a married woman whom he saw only once, briefly, while he was visiting a church at Avignon. While he never even actually met her, he wrote a series of 365 love sonnets to her, one for each day of the year.

16th Century England

1550s—Sir Thomas Wyatt translated many of Petrarch’s sonnets into English and wrote some of his own. Wyatt came to a rather inglorious end—he was imprisoned in the Tower of London by Henry VIII, on suspicion of being a lover of the king’s wife, Anne Boleyn.

1550s—Henry Howard, the Earl of Surrey, took up sonnet writing and modified the rhyme pattern to create what became known as the “Shakespearean” form. Like Wyatt, he was also imprisoned in the Tower, not for love but for treason (his sister turned him in).

1590s—Sir Phillip Sidney, a prominent aristocrat, did much to popularize the sonnet form; his sonnets were published after his heroic death in battle. Inspired by his bravery, gentlemen took up sonnet writing as a courtly pursuit.

17th Century England

1609—William Shakespeare’s sequence of 154 sonnets is published for the first time, probably without his consent. He is often considered the true master of the form.

Shakespearean sonnets are written in three four-line stanzas, called quatrains, followed by a two-line couplet. The quatrain rhyme pattern is ABAB/CDCD/EFEF and the couplet concludes with a matching rhyme, GG:

AShall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

BThou art more lovely and more temperate;

ARough winds to shake the darling buds of May,

BAnd summer’s lease hath all too short a date;

CSometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines,

DAnd often is his gold complexion dimm’d;

CAnd every fair from fair sometimes declines,

DBy chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;

EBut thy eternal summer shall not fade

FNor lose possession of that fair thou owest;

ENor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade

FWhen in eternal lines to time thou growest;

GSo long as men can breathe or eyes can see,

GSo long lives this and this gives life to thee.

(Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18)

Research another Shakespearean sonnet. Print it out and bring it to class for next class period.