The Sonnet Essay -- English Literature

The SonnetExplore aspects of the sonnet tradition by reference to a range of material you have studiedThe member sonnet comes from the Italian word sonnetto meaninglittle sound or song. A sonnet is a special type of poem. The sonnetis unceasingly 14 lines long and usually expresses the poets personalfeelings or thoughts most ofttimes connected with love or death, which are dickens of the most sanctioned aspects of human existence. The poemgenerally uses rhyme and metre to organise the poets ideas in aformal way. There are several contrastive types of sonnets which allaccomplish this in a slightly different style.The Italian or Petrarchan sonnet was originally true around 1350by Petrarch, an Italian poet (1304-1374).Petrarch had fallen madly in love with a woman named Laura, scarcely shewas a married woman and refused to become his mistress. Petrarch wrotepoetry expressing the idea of gracious love and conveying his ownmisery and his slavery to the love of Laura a love denie d. His versescontain accusations about the fickleness of love, the timeless qualityof fine art and the hopelessness and devotion of eternal love.The Italian sonnet is divided into deuce sections by two differentgroups of rhyming sounds. The first eight lines are called the octave.This has two four line units that rhyme in the same way. A b b a, a bb a.The remaining sixer lines are called the sestet and can have either twoor three rhyming sounds arranged in a variety of shipway cdcdcd, cddcdc,cdecde, cdeced, or cdcedc.The poem is clearly divided into two sections by the two differingrhyme groups. The change from one rhyme group to another signifies achange in subject division. It can also be give tongue to that the octet prese... ... years ofpain the word long is again tell to emphasize the time he hasbeen away and the suffering he has experienced as a Black in a Whiteworld. The tightness, densification and discipline of the sonnet formdoes not disguise but quite emphasises h is love for Jamaica and hissuffering since he left.In conclusion therefore, the sonnet has developed from its traditionalform albeit still retaining some of the aspects Petrarch may have in one caseused centuries beforehand such as an octave/sestet structure. It wasoriginally a formal love song with high ideals and a fuddled format.Shakespeare transformed it and made the sonnet more accessible and funfor the third estate man to enjoy. The sonnet has since evolved further andcan be used in a wide variety of forms and for an even wider range ofsubject matter and can be easily read by audiences world-wide.