Origins and Explanations of The Sonnet

Origins and Explanations of The Sonnet

The sonnet originates in Italy in the 12th and 13th century. The term

comes from the Italian for "little song" and the best known Italian

sonneteers were Dante and Francesco Petrarca. Petrarch proved most

influential on the sonnet's successive history, leaving his

predominant theme of secular love as well as the form itself to

subsequent poets. In 14th century Italy the sonnet was clearly

established in as a major form of love poetry.

The sonnet is a lyric poem comprised of 14 rhyming lines of equal

length utilising a variety of different rhyme schemes, but usually in

five-foot iambic pentameters in English. While there is a wide number

of varying classifications two essential core types are the bases for

the various modifications by experimenters.

The sonnet was introduced to England by Thomas Wyatt in the 16th

century after he learned of the form during his travels in Spain and

Italy. While he is more widely known for his other lyrics, Wyattwrote

32 sonnets in the form that has come to be known as the Petrarchan

sonnet. A friend of Wyatt, Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey shares credit

for introducing the sonnet to England. Surrey's work deviates somewhat

both thematically and structurally from Petrarch's conventions and

represents a more complete "taming" of the sonnet into the English

language. He introduced what came to be known as the Elizabethan

sonnet.

The popularity of the sonnet blossomed in the Elizabethan era relying

on the standard subject matter of the torments of sexual love usually

within a polite love convention.

The sonnet has become the most popular and enduring form...

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be put on the sound that is being repeated. Another sentence with a

large amount of alliteration in it is:-

"And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell:"

This particular sentence flows very easily because of all the 's'

sounds which appears in nearly every word. This makes the sentence

have more emphasis on it than usual which keeps the reader drawn in to

the poem because of all the same sounding words. I like it how the

poet uses this amount of alliteration in the poem because it creates

emphasis where other poems wouldn't which makes the poem more

interesting and exciting.

Another sentence with alliteration that I like is:-

"It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;"

You can't capture shining from shook foil. You can only feel it, see

it and take it inside yourself and let it echo.