Sonnets
Instructions
- Chose at least one of the categories below to focus on.
- You can annotate poems either in the margin (you will need a login for Hypothesis.is) or in the comment section at the bottom of each page.
Some Background
Sonnets now carry a certain cultural cache. To write within this recognizable form is often also a way to comment on how sonnets are perceived on on poetry in general.These short poems came to Europe through North Africa. These poems would be a usually male lover addressing a usually female beloved. The last few lines were often her speaking back with a witty rejection.
After it was adopted in what we now call Italy, it was called a sonetto, or little song/poem.
When in first migrated to England into the court of Henry VIII, it was a sign of something new and sophisticated from the continent. Courtiers Sir Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard translating Italian sonnets into English illustrated that they were educated, well-traveled, and to use an anachronism, influencers in the court.
Henry VIII succeeded by his son from his third marriage, Edward VI; then Edward's first cousin once removed, Lady Jane Grey, ruled for nine days before she was executed by the next ruler, Mary I (Henry VIII's daughter from his first marriage; Edward's half sister). By the time Elizabeth I came to the throne (she was Henry VIII's daughter from his second marriage, Mary and Edward's half-sister), sonnets had been circulated for a generation.
Translating or writing a sonnet was no longer a novelty in England. In the sonnet cycles by William Shakespeare and Sir Philip Sidney, we see them in many ways commenting on the sonnet form and through that the significance of poetry (there is much more going on, too, but these are explicit themes). Shakespeare, a theater manager-actor-writer, was not a member of the court. Whereas Sidney (and courtiers before and after) wrote to raise their profile (this could lead to military promotions, gifts of land, influence, etc) and not to earn money, it is likely that Shakespeare wrote his sonnets as part of a paid commission. As with his plays, he wrote for a living.
This metanarrative from Sidney and Shakespeare's sonnet cycle is a useful way of looking at later sonnets, including those from outside of the British Isles. As this form moved from its association with continental Europe, to the English royal court, to a representation of "great English Literature," writing a sonnet meant that you were also invoking a whole tradition along with it.
"A Brief History of Sonnets" provides examples from Early Modern England, mainly from the Tudor Era under Henry VIII and Elizabeth I.
"Sonnet Cycles" includes excerpts from longer collections of sonnets, with a focus on how they move through on-going themes.
"Responding to Sonnets" features some British and non-British poets from multiple eras.