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

Origins of the Sonnet

The sonnet was invented by Giacomo da Lentini in the 13th century, later refined by Dante and Petrarch. His masterpiece, il Canzoniere, established its importance and became a model for the European poets. It contains features, like: love sought, love satisfied and the desire for a lady who doesn't return his love. Petrarch's Canzoniere deals with his love for Laura, a courtly love. Petrarch feels contrasting sensations, according to the presence or absence of the lady.

Later the sonnet was introduced in England by Sir Thomas Wyatt and Earl Henry Howard. During the last decades of Elizabethan age, many poets started writing sonnets and most of them were named after a woman. This typical Petrarchan tradition became popular especially in England because of Queen Elizabeth I, who was referred to by poet as "Cynthia" and "the Faerie Queen".

Thomas Wyatt and the English Sonnet

Thomas Wyatt is one of the most popular Elizabethan sonneteers and was a courtly poet, who lived during the reign of Henry VIII. He was arrested in prison because probably he had a love affair with Anne Boleyn, obviously before she got married with the king. He was the first to introduce the sonnet in England. This is significant, because at that time the form was already two centuries old. He maintained Petrarch's octave but he transformed the sestet to a quatrain and a couplet: the effect was revolutionary.

Structure and Scheme of the Sonnet

They both have 14 lines of iambic pentameter, but are divided into two different ways. The Italian one is divided into two sections: an octave, that usually shows a problem, and a sestet, solves and clarifies the situation. The English sonnet presents instead three quatrains, that present a theme, and a couplet (two lines), which draws a conclusion.

The rhyme scheme of the Italian sonnet is ABBA ABBA CDC DCD or CDE CDE, while the English one is ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. At the 8th line, both sonnets have a turning point or "volta" and the 9th line is often introduced by words like "and, if, so, but" + "then" and "when" in the Shakespearean one.

Themes and Language of the Sonnet

As far as the language is concerned, they're both full of oxymora (contrasting image, like "living death") and the English sonnet shows also conceits (elaborate images that surprise the reader) The paradox characterises the English sonnets, because for example the lady is beautiful yet cruel, she's desirable but chaste, and the love for a woman often turns into love for God. Themes are quite the same, Love, beauty and faith + art, for the English one.

Contrasts and Emotions in the Sonnet

"I find no peace" is almost a translation of "Pace non trovo", that was written two centuries before. The poets don't find peace because their love for a lady is too strong and it causes contrasting emotions like pain. They love a woman that can't return their love back, because she's married or promised to another man. They're confused and agitated; love won't let them being free. The first quatrain of "I find no peace" shows contradicting feelings (line 4), in the second one Wyatt describes the helplessness of love (line 8) and in the third one we can poet's mental agitation (line 11). The couplet presents the oscillation of feeling in love (line 13). The poet delineates the nature of love as something that could make a person feel sorrow, pain, joy and confusion at the same time.