Compiled, designed & circulated by:
Mr Milan Mondal, Assistant Professor, Dept. of English, Narajole Raj College
ENGLISH (CC); SEM-I: PAPER- C2T (Sonnet: An Introduction) Sonnet: An Introduction
: —Sonnet, a kind of lyric, is of Italian origin. The term has been derived from the Italian word sonnetto which is the diminutive from the Latin word sonus. In old French 'son' means 'sound'. In Italy sonnetto means 'little song'. A sonnet, as a lyric, consists of fourteen lines with a distinct rhyme scheme.Usually sonnets are of two types: the Italian or Petrarchan sonnet and the Shakespearean or English sonnet. The Italian sonnet consists of two parts: the octave (eight lines with the rhyme scheme abba abba) and the sestet (six lines rhyming cde cde or cd cd cd).
The Shakespearean sonnet, on the other hand, is divided into three quatrains and a couplet, rhyming abab cdcd efef gg.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616):
Evergreen dramatist and sonneteer William Shakespeare was born on April 23, 1564, in Holy Trinity Church, Stratford on- Avon. William was the third child of John Shakespeare and Mary Arden. Apart from his plays that are popularly divided as Tragedies, Comedies and • Historical Plays, Shakespeare also wrote some non-dramatic L poetry which deserves separate consideration. His contemporary Ben Jonson rightly tributes him, "Thou... art alive still, while thy Booke doth live, /And we have wits to read, and praise to give." Shakespeare died on the anniversary of his birth, April 23, 1616.Shakespearean Sonnet: An Introduction: —
The sonnets of Shakespeare, 154 in number, were published in 1609 by Thomas Thorpe. Sir Francis Meres, referred to them asCompiled, designed & circulated by:
Mr Milan Mondal, Assistant Professor, Dept. of English, Narajole Raj College
ENGLISH (CC); SEM-I: PAPER- C2T (Sonnet: An Introduction)
Shakespeare's 'sugared sonnets' in his book Palladis Tamia in 1598. Critics they were written during the years in between 1592 and 1603.
The sonnets are divisible into two major groups: sonnets 1 - 126 are addressed to a fair young man and the sonnets of the other group (127-152) are addressed to a woman fondly known as the 'dark lady'. The last two sonnets, 153-154, deals with the of love.
The identity of the fair young man is still a mystery to the critics. The dedication of the sonnets mentions Mr. W. H. as 'the sole begetter' of the sonnets and it is thought that this W. H. may be the fair young man. The two most popular candidates for Mr. W. H. are the Earl of Southampton or Mr. Henry Wriothesley and the Earl of Pembroke or William Herbert.
However, some other candidates for the person may be - William Hall, an Elizabethan literary agent; William Harte, a nephew of Shakespeare; William Hathaway, Shakespeare's brother-in- law or William Hughes, a musician. Some critics go to the extent to identify him with William himself that is the person is none other than Shakespeare himself.
Similarly, the popular candidates for the role Of the dark lady are Mary Fitton, a maid of honour to Queen Elizabeth and Mrs. Davenant, the wife of an Oxford innkeeper and the mother of Sir William Davenant, the Restoration dramatist. Some other candidates for the dark lady are - Emilia, the daughter of Bassano and Margaret Johnson and the wife of a man called William Lanier; Lucy Morgan alias Lucy Negro, a well-known prostitute of the 1590's running a brothel in Clerkenwell.
However, editors of Shakespeare's Sonnets have often arranged and rearranged them; hence the groupings have been changed along with rearranged form.
Compiled, designed & circulated by:
Mr Milan Mondal, Assistant Professor, Dept. of English, Narajole Raj College
ENGLISH (CC); SEM-I: PAPER- C2T (Sonnet: An Introduction)
The themes of most of these sonnets are the non-peril beauty of the beloved Fair Youth and his love-hate relationship with the Dark Lady. These sonnets are marked with strong imaginative impulse and the passionate intensity. The dramatic elements as well as picturesque imageries decorate them beautifully.
