The Sonnet

1. The Sonnet Dr. AnasuyaBhar Department of English St. Paul’s Cathedral Mission College

2. The Sonnet is a form of lyric poetry which originated in Sicily and Italy way back in the thirteenth century in the late Medieval period of European history. The word sonnet derives from the Italian sonnetto, which means a ‘little sound’ or a ‘song’. A sonnet commonly consists of fourteen lines, divided either into an octave and sestet or three quatrains and a couplet. Based on this variation the sonnet may be Petrarchan or Shakespearean in form. But the sonnet may also be Petrarchan or Shakespearean in sentiment. The sonnet generally deals with love.

3. Francesco Petrarch (1304-1374) Francesco Petrarch was among the most well known practitioners of the genre. He immortalized himself with his collection of sonnets called Canzoniere. Most of his sonnets were dedicated to his lady love Laura.

4. Laura or Laureta de Noves Laura was the wife of Hugues de Sade. Although Petrarch’s love for Laura remained unreciprocated, it gave birth to unforgettable poetry. Laura died of Black Death at Avignon on 6th April 1348. Out of the 366 poems in the collection, 263 are dedicated to the memory of Laura’s life, while the rest concerns the poet’s life after her death.

5. Daphne – Laurel Myth Was Laura real or imaginary? We are not sure about the reality of Laura’s existence. A possible clue may be derived from the Laura-Daphne identification. This has its roots in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Daphne was the beloved of Apollo the Greek god of music and poetry. She got metamorphosed into a laurel tree when Apollo pursued her. Thus the proximity of Laura/laurel and Daphne. If Laura is not real, she may be a symbol of the many laurels won by the poet through poetry.

6. Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503-1542)and Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (1517 – 1547) The sonnet was imported into England mostly through the efforts of Sir Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard during the reign of King Henry VIII (1509 – 1547). Many of their sonnets were published in Richard Tottel’s anthology Tottel’s Miscellany (1557).

7. Queen Elizabeth I (1558-1603) Queen Elizabeth the First was among the foremost patrons of the sonnet form. What materialized were Sonnet sequences in Elizabethan England. This meant that a number of sonnets were linked together by a narrative thread. Some of the greatest sonnet sequences were composed by Sir Philip Sidney, Michael Drayton, Edmund Spenser, William Shakespeare and John Donne.

8. Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586) and William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616) Sidney’s Astrophil and Stella (1591) and Shakespeare’s Sonnets (1609) were and are still, popular examples of Sonnet Sequences.

9. Shakespeare’s Sonnets - Dedication Shakespeare’s Sonnets had a notorious dedication to a particular Mr. W.H to whose identity speculations are many. Among the foremost are Henry Wriothesley and William Herbert. Among the 154 odd sonnets the first 126 are dedicated to a young man possibly W. H and the rest to a mysterious Dark Lady.

10. Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton and William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke The possible Mr. W.H in Shakespeare’s sonnets. Henry Wriothesley seems to be a probable claimant as Shakespeare also dedicated his The Rape of Lucrece to him.