Sonnets

By Megan Arkenberg 

The Sonnet

by Edith Wharton

Pure form, that like some chalice of old time
Contain’st the liquid of the poet’s thought
Within thy curving hollow, gem-enwrought
With interwoven traceries of rhyme,
While o’er thy brim the bubbling fancies climb,
What thing am I, that undismayed have sought
To pour my verse with trembling hand untaught
Into a shape so small yet so sublime?

Because perfection haunts the hearts of men,
Because thy sacred chalice gathered up
The wine of Petrarch, Shakespeare, Shelley – then
Receive these tears of failure as they drop
(Sole vintage of my life), since I am fain
To pour them in a consecrated cup.

As Wharton observed in this 1891 poem, there is no western poetic form more historically practiced, honored, and recognized than the sonnet. It’s name is derived from the Italian sonetto, or “small song,” and it has a rich literary history in both English and the Romance languages, having been developed by such fine poets as Francesco Petrarch, John Milton, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, John Milton, William Shakespeare, William Wordsworth, and Edna St. Vincent Millay.

The sonnet has a reputation for being a complicated, heavily regulated form, but generally speaking, there are only three concrete requirements for sonnets written in English: it is fourteen lines long, written in iambic pentameter (10 syllables per line, every other syllable stressed), and it has some sort of rhyme. Contrary to popular belief, sonnets do not need to fit one particular rhyme scheme.

The two most common sonnet varieties are the Italian (or Petrarchan) and the English (or Shakespearean).

Edith Wharton’s poem above is an example of a Italian sonnet. Many (though not all) Italian sonnets follow the rhyme scheme ABBA ABBA CDE CDE. The important distinction between a Italian sonnet and an English sonnet is the way the poem develops. Italian sonnets begin with an eight line octane, which introduces a problem, a metaphor, or a question, and close with a six line sestet, which answers or expands upon the octane. In the Italian sonnet below, Edna St. Vincent Millay describes a human situation in the octane and a parallel natural situation in the sestet:

What lips my lips have kissed*

What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why,
I have forgotten, and what arms have lain
Under my head till morning; but the rain
Is full of ghosts tonight, that tap and sigh
Upon the glass and listen for reply;
And in my heart there stirs a quiet pain
For unremembered lads that not again
Will turn to me at midnight with a cry.

Thus in the winter stands a lonely tree,
Nor knows what birds have vanished one by one,
Yet know its boughs more silent than before:
I cannot say what loves have come and gone;
I only know that summer sang in me
A little while, that in me sings no more.

*When sonnets are left untitled, they’re often identified by their first line or first complete phrase.

English sonnets, which often (but again, not always) have the rhyme scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF GG, begin with three four-line quatrains and close with a two-line couplet. The problem, metaphor, or question of an English sonnet is introduced in the first quatrain and expanded on in the second; the third quatrain begins to answer the problem, and the couplet completes the answer. For example, here is Shakespeare’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,
Featur’d 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.

The first quatrain introduces the situation, the second quatrain details it, the third quatrain shows a change in the speaker’s thoughts, and the couplet shows the speaker’s conclusion.

The volta, or turn, that occurs at the ninth line in most sonnets is the most important part of the poem. It is this shift in thought that makes a fourteen line poem in iambic pentameter into a true sonnet; some realization is reached by the speaker and, in an effective sonnet, by the reader as well.

For practice, try reading a number of sonnets both historical and modern, translated and original. Identify the volta and think about how it adds to your understanding of the original problem or metaphor. Look at the way the poet used rhyme—does it feel natural or forced? Do the parts of the sonnet build logically on each other, do some phrases seem to be included just to complete a rhyme scheme?

Sonnets can be difficult to write, but the results are well worth it. There’s a reason poets are continuing to write them, nearly 1,000 years since the form’s creation!

Sonnet Website

Sonnet Central - http://thesonnetboard.yuku.com/

Sonnet Magazines

Sixty Six: The Journal of Sonnet Studies - http://www.bostonpoetry.com/66
Fourteen Magazine - http://fourteenmagazine.com/
14 by 14 - http://14by14.com/