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The Sonnet

The Sonnet. The Elizabethan sonnet and the Shakespeare’s sonnets. The Sonnet. The most typical expression of Renaissance poetry was the Sonnet . Dante and Petrarch had a great influence on the diffusion of this new genre in England .

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The Sonnet

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  1. The Sonnet The Elizabethansonnet and the Shakespeare’ssonnets

  2. The Sonnet • The mosttypicalexpression of Renaissancepoetrywas the Sonnet. Dante and Petrarchhad a greatinfluence on the diffusion of this new genre in England. • The greatest English sonnetwriters of the Renaissancewere Philip Sidney (Astrophil and Stella), Edmund Spenser (Amoretti) and William Shakespeare. • The themeswere: love, friendship, beauty, the destructiveeffect of time and the desire for womenwhowereunattainable. • For the poet, love isinspired by the beauty of hisbeloved, which he tries to capture in poeticform. • The lady is an idealised figure and the love felt by the poetisoften a platonicone

  3. The form of the sonnet • The originalPetrarchansonnetwas a poem of fourteenlines of hendecasyllablesdividedintotwoparts, the first containingtwoQuatrains, the second, twoTercets. The rhymeschemewasusually ABBA ABBA CDE CDE (enclosedrhymes). • The English sonnetwasdifferent. Itwascomposed of fourteenlines of iambicpentameters (tensyllables), dividedintothreeQuatrains and onerhyming couplet. The rhymeschemeisusually ABAB CDCD EFEF GG (alternate rhymes)

  4. Shakespeare’sSonnets The English sonnettraditionculminated with the publication in 1609 of Shakespeare’ssonnets. • 154 Sonnets • Theyconsist of 14 linesstructuredas 3 Quatrains and 1 Couplet. The rhyme schema is ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. The 3 Quatrains introduce the theme; the final Couplet usuallypresents a conclusionoftensurprising or unexpected. • The Sonnets 1- 126 are addressed to a young man, the «fair youth» • The Sonnets 127-154 are addressed to a woman, the «dark lady»

  5. The Themes • The first 17 poems, «the procreationsonnets», invite the young man (the fair youth) to marry and havechildren in order to makehis beauty immortal. The sonnet 18 isabout the love and the passionate concern for him; • The secondgroup of sonnetsrevolvesaround the relationship with the «dark lady» (shehasblackhair and dun coloured skin); the belovedlady’sphysicalfeaturesdistinguishher from the fair, angelic woman typical of Petrarchansonnets. Sheisdepictedas a veryattractive and seductive lady and his love for herisalso a sexualpassion.

  6. Love, Time and Poetry • Love: severalsonnets are alsoabout the unpleasantsensationscaused by love, suchasfear, despair and alienation; other investigate the nature of love itself, comparing the idealized love of Petrarchanpoems with the complicated love found in real life. • Time and Poetry: Shakespeare describes time as an enemy of love. Time destroys love becauseitcauses beauty to fade, people to age, and life to end. ButPoetryhas the power to contrast the action of time. Shakespeare makes the «fair youth» and the «dark lady» immortal.

  7. Shakespeare’ssonnets break with the tradition • Part of hissonnets are addressed to a man whichwasunique in ElizabethanEngland; • Whileconventionalsonnets are addressed to an idealized woman, hisdark lady isverydifferent from the angelicideal of the courtlypoems; • In conventionalsonnets love isplatonic, while S. alsospeaksaboutsexual desire.

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