shakespeare's sonnets,sonnets,the sonnets, sonnet

 SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS Background

 Sonnets are fourteen-line poems in two or three rhyme schemes. One of them is named after the Italian humanist and poet Petrarch (Francesco Petrarca) (1304- 74) who used the sonnet sequence to praise Laura whom he first met in 1327. His odes and sonnets in praise of Laura were later included in conzoniere of Rime (1360). His sonnets structurally and also in thought process are divided into octaves and sestets, i.e. eight-and six-line stanzas. The octaves follow the rhyme scheme abba, abba but the rhyme scheme of the sestets vary: Ccd ccd or cdcdcd or cdecde. Petrarch had profound influence on European literature as he showed the way for the revival of interest in ancient Greek and Latin literatures. 

The most well known name in English for the immediate influence of Petrarch is that of Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503-42) who held many diplomatic assignments in France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands in the service of the Tudor monarch Henry VIII(1509-47). Sir Thomas visited Italy for the first time in 1527 when he got inspired by Petrarch's poems and essays and translated them into English. The most accomplished writers of Petrarchan sonnets in English are Milton and Wordsworth. Henry Howard, (by courtesy) Earl of surrey (? 1517 - 47) was in the English army in France (1544-6). However, his sonnets were predominantly in the "English' form, i.e. abab, cdcd, efef, gg which was later used by Shakespeare. A third variety of the sonnets is that invented by Spenser. The rhyme scheme of a Spenserian sonnet is: abab bcbc cded ee