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The Sonnet

The Sonnet. AP English: Literature. Definition. The sonnet is a fourteen-line poem usually written in iambic pentameter with a variety of rhyme schemes. History.

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The Sonnet

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  1. The Sonnet AP English: Literature

  2. Definition The sonnet is a fourteen-line poem usually written in iambic pentameter with a variety of rhyme schemes.

  3. History The word sonnet is derived from the Italian word sonetto that means little song. The form was invented by Giocomo de Lentini, an Italian notary in the court of Frederick II, an emperor of the Holy Roman Empire in the thirteenth century.

  4. History Petrarch popularized the form in the fourteenth century with a sequence of 366 poems entitled Canzoniere that was dedicated to an idealized lover named Laura.

  5. History Dante wrote a book entitled La Vita Nuova (The New Life) that included twenty-five sonnets as part of chapters that had a variety of poems and prose. His writing of sonnets helped popularize the form; however, Dante abandoned the book when Beatrice Portinari, the love of his life, died. He later dedicated the Divine Comedy to her. He also included Petrarch as a character in the narrative.

  6. History The first English sonnets were composed by Sir Thomas Wyat and Henry Howard, the Earl of Surrey, in the sixteenth century. These sonnets were mostly translations of Petrarch’s sonnets.

  7. History • Sir Philip Sydney wrote Astrophel and Stella, a sonnet sequence in the 1580s. This popularized the English fascination with the sonnet sequence—a collection of sonnets grouped under a theme that can be read as both a single work and as separate poems.

  8. History With Sydney’s sequence, the English sonnet became a dominate form of the poem. It differed from the Italian sonnet in basic structure. Many poets used this form, but William Shakespeare popularized it; thus, the form is often called the Shakespearean sonnet.

  9. Two Main Categories of the Sonnet The two main types of sonnets are the Petrarchan sonnet (the Italian sonnet) and the Shakespearean sonnet (the English sonnet).

  10. Petrarchan Sonnet The Petrarchan sonnet has two main sections: the octave and the sestet. This form of poem forms an argument or narrative.

  11. Petrarchan Sonnet The octave, the first eight lines, presents the narrative problem through description—describing the problem, situation or question. The octave usually has an abbaabba rhyme scheme.

  12. Petrarchan Sonnet The sestet , the final six lines, solves the problem by stating an abstraction, applying the idea proposed by the problem, or solving the problem directly. The sestet has three common rhyme schemes. The first is a quatrain and a couplet: cdcd ee. The second is an alternation of two rhymes: cdcdcd. The third is three rhymes: cdecde.

  13. English Sonnet The English sonnet has three quatrains and a couplet. This can be divided into stanzas that are three quatrains and one couplet, or an octave (the first two quatrains) and a sestet (the third quatrain and the couplet).

  14. English Sonnet • The basic rhyme scheme of an English sonnet is ababcdcdefefgg.

  15. English Sonnet • In the English sonnet, the first two quatrains tell a kind of story or focus on an idea or feeling. The third quatrain then makes a change, sometimes by introducing something new, something unexpected. The couplet functions as an epigram, a brief, clever and memorable statement that comments on the quatrains by summarizing the poem or continuing the idea introduced in the third quatrain.

  16. English Sonnet • A variety of the English sonnet is the Spenserian sonnet with the rhyme scheme: ababbcbccdcdee. This version of the English sonnet combines the Italian and English sonnets with the rhyme connections between the quatrains.

  17. Basic Content • Overall, sonnets have two main sections with a line that serves as a transition between description (the first eight lines) and generalization (the last six). It may be useful to think of the sestet as beginning with the word thereforesince the lines that follow are a thought about the overall situation. It can be six lines used as a statement or four lines generalizing and a couplet that gives an ultimate statement about the topic.

  18. Basic Content • Traditionally, the subject matter of sonnets has been love and philosophical considerations; however, there have been sonnets about many other topics—especially those written by contemporary poets. As you consider the form, look at how the content is represented in the form—both the line/stanza arrangements and the sound devices that unite the poem as a whole.

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