Explore aspects of the sonnet tradition through reference to a range of material you have studied?

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Explore aspects of the sonnet tradition through reference to a range of material you have studied?

A sonnet is a 14-line poem with each line having 10 syllables. It originated in the 13th century and was introduced into England in the 16th century by Sir Thomas Wyatt.

The Petrarchan (or Italian) sonnet characteristically consists of an eight-line octave, rhyming abbaabba, that states a problem, asks a question, or expresses an emotional tension, followed by a six-line sestet, of varying rhyme schemes, that resolves the problem, answers the question, or resolves the tension. The rhyme scheme for the sestet is cdecde.

For instance, Wilfred Owen uses the first eight-lines to describe how deaths at war are laid to rest and the sestet to describe how the same thing is done back home (Anthem for Doomed Youth).

The rhyme scheme for the sestet is cdecde.

This is how the famous poet Francesco Petrarca, thus why it is named the “Petrarchan Sonnet” chose to write his sonnets.

However William Shakespeare, a famous English poet, used another sonnet-rhyming scheme his is as follows:

The first twelve lines are made up of three quatrains (blocks of four lines linked by rhyme).

The last two lines form a rhyming couplet, e.g. a rhyming pair: 

abab, cdcd, efef, gg

William Shakespeare is often considered the greatest writer of English literature that ever lived. By 1594 he was a rising playwright in London and an actor in a leading theatre company, who performed at the Globe Theatre from 1599. His 154 sonnets were originally published in 1609 but it is argued that they were mostly written in the 1590s, often expressed strong feeling within an exquisitely controlled form.

His sonnets portrayed a strong sense of love and passion but it has always been a high topic of debate as to whom these sonnets were dedicated to. The question of whether Shakespeare was a bi-sexual has never been answered. Shakespeare uses very emotive words in his sonnets, which captures you amongst the words and involves the readers mind, body and soul. For instance in his famous sonnet “Shall I compare thee…?”, Shakespeare compares someone to the beauty of nature, thus his first line and the title of the sonnet. He uses a rhetorical question to inhibit the fact that he knows the answer himself and needs no one to confirm it.  

“Shall I Compare thee to a summers day?”

(Sonnet XVl l l, line 1)

The sonnet describes of how summer only last for a short time therefore the sonnet could have been implying that the beauty of this person is only temporary. However he crushes this idea with the lines:

“But thy eternall Sommer shall not fade”

(Sonnet XVl l l, line 9)

“Nor loose possession of that faire thou ow’st”

(Sonnet XVl l l, line 10)

Shakespeare portrays his love in this sonnet by giving it a sense of immortality and suggesting it is eternal. He indicates that the only enemy in love is time therefore why he portrays his love as timeless. Although he is not talking from experience his poems still exert a sense of realism in his words of wisdom. The language and imagery used in many of his sonnets leave an impressionable mark on the reader as his belief in love boils over the top in his sonnet, “Shall I compare thee?”   His exaggeration in the sonnet only underlines his thoughts that beating time is the main element for conquering love.

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 In one of Shakespeare’s other sonnets, Let me not (Sonnet CXVl), his displays his ideas about how powerful love can be. In this poem he uses nature as a contrast as to what love can with stand, as in the last sonnet he compared love to summer he uses more brutal weather in this sonnet to make it more effective.

“That looks on tempests and is never shaken”

(Sonnet CXVl, line 6)

Shakespeare’s values of love are also shown in this sonnet.

“Whose worths unknowne”

(Sonnet CXVl, line 8)

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