The Evolution of the Sonnet: From Italian Origins to the Elizabethan Era

What are the origins of the Renaissance Sonnet?

The most typical expression of Renaissance poetry was the sonnet. The sonnet was derived from Italian poets dante and Petrarch. Dante and Petrarch gave to the poetsof the Elizabethan England a new field of poetic conventions with which they couldbuild the countless themes and variations. Between the main interests of writers of sonnets there was: love, friendship, beauty, the destructive effect of time and desire for women who were not easy to conquer or that loved him the love of the poet. Often the woman the poet loves is a beautiful woman but is also presented as a very cruel. There is no point of view in her feelings, but we understand only from the inner world of the poet. The poet may have conflicting feelings ranging from great happiness to utter despair, from pleasure to pain and jealousy. For the poet, love is inspired by the beauty of the beloved that he seeks to capture in poetic form but this beauty although it may contain something immortal, it is deadly and fades over time. The poet would like a woman but at the same time hope you don't give up easily.

Structure and Form of the Sonnet

With regard to the form, the original was a poem by Petrarch sonnet 14 verses poetry, divided into two parts: the first contains two quatrains, the second two triplets. Rhyme scheme ABBA ABBA CDE CDE usually is. The first octave is often the situationwhile the Sextet includes personal reflections and sometimes the solution to this dilemma expressed in the first part of the sonnet. This form was later modified by English poets in the Elizabethan sonnet is composed of 14 verses again but this time is divided into 3 quatrains and a final couplet, i.e. 2 verses that rhyme with each other. The greatest writers of lussuriosi ell era were Thomas Wyatt, Philip Sidney, Edmund Spenser and William Shakespeare.