I. What is a Sonnet?
A sonnet (pronounced son-it) is a fourteen line poem with a fixed rhyme scheme. Often, sonnets use iambic pentameter: five sets of unstressed syllables followed by stressed syllables for a ten-syllable line. Sonnets were invented by the Italian poet Giacomo da Lentini during the 1200s. The word sonnet is derived from the Old Occitan phrase sonet meaning “little song.”
II. Examples and Types of Sonnets
Over time, the sonnet form has evolved. Here are the two most common types of sonnets written today:
a. Italian (Petrarchan) Sonnet
The Italian sonnet is based on the original sonnet invented by da Lentini. The Petrarchan sonnet consists of an octave (group of eight lines) followed by a sestet (group of six lines). The typical rhyme scheme is as follows: a b b a a b b a for the octave and c d d c d d, c d d e c e, or c d d c c d for the sestet. The octave introduces a problem or conflict, and then the sestet addresses or solves the problem.
Here is an example of an Italian sonnet written by William Wordsworth:
Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour: (a)
England hath need of thee: she is a fen (b)
Of stagnant waters: altar, sword, and pen, (b)
Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower, (a)
Have forfeited their ancient English dower (a)
Of inward happiness. We are selfish men; (b)
Oh! raise us up, return to us again; (b)
And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power. (a)
Thy soul was like a Star, and dwelt apart; (c)
Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea: (d)
Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free, (d)
So didst thou travel on life’s common way, (e)
In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heart (c)
The lowliest duties on herself did lay. (e)
“London, 1802” has the rhyme scheme of an Italian sonnet: a b b a a b b a and c d d e c e. In the octave, we learn of a problem: Milton has died and England is in moral decline. In the sestet, we learn of the solution: unlike England, Milton was filled with glory and morality which England must adopt in order to recover.
b. English (Shakespearean) Sonnet
The Shakespearean sonnet is named after Shakespeare not because he invented it but because he is the most famous writer of this type of sonnet. Typically, the English sonnet explores romantic love. Its rhyme scheme is as follows: a b a b c d c d followed by e f e f g g.
Here is an example of an English sonnet by William Shakespeare:
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? (a)
Thou art more lovely and more temperate: (b)
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, (a)
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date: (b)
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, (c)
And often is his gold complexion dimm’d; (d)
And every fair from fair sometime declines, (c)
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d; (d)
But thy eternal summer shall not fade (e)
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest; (f)
Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade, (e)
When in eternal lines to time thou growest: (f)
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, (g)
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. (g)
“Sonnet 18” is one of the most famous examples of the Shakespearean sonnet, using the exact rhyme scheme and exploring romantic love for a woman.
III. The Importance of Using Sonnets
Sonnets are a classic poetic form which has been adopted across languages and around the world. Although free verse has popularized poetry free of form, rhyme, or syllabic constraints, the sonnet still remains a popular form in its own right. Sonnets have allowed poets to examine religious, personal, and political problems. They allow even the most elementary poets to dabble in romance with the most classic form of love poetry.
IV. Sonnets in Literature
To this day, sonnets are a popular form in literature.
Example 1
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal these words appear:
“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
In “Ozymandias,” Percy Bysshe Shelley examines the passing of time and how despite humankind’s attempts to fight it, even the most fantastic empires may fall or turn into dust in the desert wind.
Example 2
She ruled in beauty o’er this heart of mine,
A noble lady in a humble home,
And now her time for heavenly bliss has come,
‘Tis I am mortal proved, and she divine.
The soul that all its blessings must resign,
And love whose light no more on earth finds room,
Might rend the rocks with pity for their doom,
Yet none their sorrows can in words enshrine;
They weep within my heart; and ears are deaf
Save mine alone, and I am crushed with care,
And naught remains to me save mournful breath.
Assuredly but dust and shade we are,
Assuredly desire is blind and brief,
Assuredly its hope but ends in death.
This sonnet, Soleasi Nel Mio Cor, by Francesco Petrarca himself, father of the Petrarchan sonnet, examines the love of a beautiful woman.
V. Sonnets in Pop Culture
Sonnets inspire singers to adapt poetry to song and movie-makers and TV writers to dramatize the classic form. Here are a few examples of sonnets in pop culture:
Example 1
Rufus Wainwright’s “Sonnet 29”
When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possess’d,
Desiring this man’s art and that man’s scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven’s gate;
For thy sweet love remember’d such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.
Inspired by the beauty of William Shakespeare’s sonnet, Rufus Wainwright created a musical composition under which he could sing the sonnet.
Example 2
Kat’s version of “Sonnet 141”
In 10 Things I Hate About You, Kat reads a modernized version of Sonnet 141. Here are the two versions:
Kat’s Version:
I hate the way you talk to me,
And the way you cut your hair.
I hate the way you drive my car.
I hate it when you stare.
I hate your big dumb combat boots,
And the way you read my mind.
I hate you so much it makes me sick.
(It even makes me rhyme.)
I hate the way you’re always right.
I hate it when you lie.
I hate it when you make me laugh—
Even worse when you make me cry.
I hate it when you’re not around, and the fact that you didn’t call.
But mostly I hate the way I don’t hate you—not even close, not even a little bit, not even at all.
Shakespeare’s Version:
In faith, I do not love thee with mine eyes,
For they in thee a thousand errors note;
But ’tis my heart that loves what they despise,
Who in despite of view is pleased to dote;
Nor are mine ears with thy tongue’s tune delighted,
Nor tender feeling, to base touches prone,
Nor taste, nor smell, desire to be invited
To any sensual feast with thee alone:
But my five wits nor my five senses can
Dissuade one foolish heart from serving thee,
Who leaves unsway’d the likeness of a man,
Thy proud heart’s slave and vassal wretch to be:
Only my plague thus far I count my gain,
That she that makes me sin awards me pain.
The movie version honors Shakespeare’s tradition of the sonnet form but makes it more accessible and enjoyable for the modern movie-goer.
VI. Related Terms: Sonnets vs. Similar Poetic Forms
Ballad
Both sonnets and ballads are poetic forms which often tell stories. The difference between a sonnet and a ballad lies in form and substance. Whereas the sonnet is fourteen rhymed lines, the ballad is less complex and can take on a wide variety of forms. Ballads are often set to music and take on a narrative form, telling a specific, emotional story complete with simple but compelling imagery. The sonnet, on the other hand, can be narrative or non-narrative, impersonal or personal. Here is an example of a ballad:
Elton John’s “Candle in the Wind”
And it seems to me you lived your life
Like a candle in the wind
Never knowing who to cling to
When the rain set in
And I would have liked to have known you
But I was just a kid
Your candle burned out long before
Your legend ever did
Your candle burned out long before
Your legend ever did
Elton John uses simple but effective imagery to tell the story of Norma Jean in this classic ballad.
Villanelle
Villanelles rival the sonnet in strict form, though the form is remarkably different from the sonnet with nineteen lines of repeating rhymes and refrains. With capital letters for refrains and lowercase letters for rhymes, this is the form: A1 b A2 / a b A1 / a b A2 / a b A1 / a b A2 / a b A1 A2. Here is a famous example of the villanelle:
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Dylan Thomas uses the villanelle form in “Do not go gentle into that good night,” urging readers to fight to survive in raging against the dying light.
VII. In Closing
The sonnet is a strict poetic form with fourteen lines consisting of an octave and sestet. Often, sonnets make use of iambic pentameter and a specific rhyme scheme. Whether examining love or hate, politics or religion, everyday beauty or ugliness, poets can use the sonnet form’s framework to create a remarkable poem.