First of all, let’s see what a sonnet looks like. The sonnet, or literally “little song” in Italian, has taken the strict form of a 14-line poem with a standardized rhyme scheme, a consistent meter, and a “turn” that marks a tonal or thematic shift in the two concluding lines. Yet there have been different types of sonnets over the centuries as some poets have taken liberties by altering some of the main components.
Its country of origin is Italy but it seemed to have been brought to England by Sir Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard, earl of Surrey in the 16th century. Tottel’s Miscellany was the first printed anthology of English poetry (published in 1557); it means that the “English sonnet” had been established by Wyatt and Surrey well before Shakespeare’s birth! Its main characteristics are the rhyme scheme (abab cdcd efef gg) and the breaking up of the last six lines into a quatrain and a couplet and a “turn” before the last couplet; whereas the “Petrarchan sonnet” consisted of an octave and a sestet (or two tercets).
We may wonder why the sonnet became so popular in the world of poetry. During Elizabeth I’s reign, Sir Philip Sidney wrote a sonnet sequence titled Astrophil and Stella in English in the 1580s and after him many poets chose to compose “English sonnets”, their short form made it easier to write in a short period of time.
As for Shakespeare, he became famous first as a poet. His Sonnets are considered to be the most influential poems written in English. They were first published in 1609 and have been reprinted ever since that time. They have been a great source of inspiration for his fellow poets. The sonnets named after him feature recurrent elements such as fourteen lines divided into three quatrains with the second and fourth lines containing rhyming words and the last two lines rhyme with each other and all the lines are phrased in iambic pentameter.
As a conclusion, we can say that the sonnet form was typical of the Renaissance period but it has remained a much-appreciated form of poetry along the centuries. William Shakespeare was a great contributor to its success, though its form has changed along the centuries.
A line : un vers
The rhyme scheme : la disposition des rimes
A shift : un changement
To alter : changer, modifier
A fellow : un confrère
An iambic pentameter : un pentamètre iambique
