A favorite of poets and admirers of poetry, the sonnet traces its genealogy to the works of the Provencal troubadours who created secular lyrics and were the first to compose songs in the folk language, and not in Latin. The name of the genre goes back to the Provencal word sonet - a sonorous, sonorous song.
What is a sonnet? History of occurrence
The Albiguian wars (1209-1229), which swept the south of France, forced many troubadours to move to Sicily, where in the 1200s in Naples, at the court of the philanthropist and poet poet Frederick the Second, a school of poetry was formed. Its representatives contributed to the transformation of the sonnet - in Italian it was already called sonetto - in the leading genre of his work. Sicilian poets used the Tuscan dialect, which already at the turn of the 13-14 centuries formed the basis of the Italian literary language. Many geniuses of the Renaissance wrote sonnets: Petrarch, Dante, Boccaccio, Pierre de Ronsard, Lope de Vega, Shakespeare ... And each of them brought something new to the content of the poems.
Shape Features
A classic sonnet consists of fourteen stanzas. In the era of the Italian and French Renaissance, poets wrote poems in the form of two quatrains (quatrains) and two tercines (tricycle), and during the English period - three quatrains and one couplet.
The sonnet poem is incredibly musical, which is why it is easy for him to compose music. A certain rhythm was achieved due to the alternation of male and female rhymes, when the emphasis falls on the last and, accordingly, on the penultimate syllables. Researchers have found that the classic sonnet contains 154 syllables, but not all poets have followed this tradition. Italy, France and England are the three cradles of the development of this poetic form. The authors of the sonnets - immigrants from each country - made some changes to the form and composition.
Wreath of Sonnets
This particular form of poem originated in Italy in the 13th century. It has 15 sonnets, and in the latter lies the main theme and idea of the remaining fourteen. For this reason, the authors began work from the end. In the fifteenth sonnet, the first two stanzas are important, and according to tradition, the first sonnet must certainly begin with the first line of the last and end with the second. No less interesting are other parts of the wreath poem. In the remaining thirteen sonnets, the last line of the previous must be the first line of the next.
Of the Russian poets, the names of Vyacheslav Ivanov and Valery Bryusov were remembered in the history of world literature. They perfectly knew what a sonnet was, and therefore showed interest in a wreath of sonnets. In Russia, this form of writing originated in the 18th century. The genius Valery Bryusov was a master of this genre and strictly observed the established foundations. His last poem from a wreath of sonnets (The Fatal Row) begins with the lines:
"Fourteen I needed to call
Names of loved ones, memorable, living! "
To make the composition of the genre more understandable, a little analysis is needed. According to tradition, the first sonnet begins with the final stanza, and the second one ends; the third sonnet begins with the last line of the previous one, in this case, “the names of your beloved, memorable, living!” It can be argued that Valery Bryusov has reached perfection in this genre. To date, literary scholars have counted 150 wreaths of sonnets of Russian poets, and there are about 600 of them in world poetry.
Francesco Petrarch (1304-1374). Italian Renaissance
He was called the first man of the Renaissance and the founder of classical philology. Francesco Petrarch was educated as a lawyer, became a priest, but he lived not on the principle of theocentrism. Petrarch traveled all over Europe, being in the service of the cardinal, began his literary work in the village of Vaucluse in southern France. All his life he interpreted ancient manuscripts and preferred the ancient classics - Virgil and Cicero. Petrarch placed many of his poems, including sonnets, in the Canzoniere collection, which literally means “Song Book”. In 1341 he was crowned with a laurel crown for his literary merits.
Features of creativity
The main feature of Petrarch is to love and be loved, but this love should apply not only to a woman, but also to friends, family, nature. He reflected this idea in his work. His book "Canzoniere" refers to the muse Laura de Nov, the daughter of a knight. The collection was written almost all his life and had two editions. The sonnets of the first book are called "On the life of Laura", the second - "On the death of Laura." In total there are 366 verses in the collection. In 317 sonnets of Petrarch, a temporary dynamics of feelings is traced. In "Chancellor", the author sees the task of poetry in singing the beautiful and cruel Madonna. He idealizes Laura, but she does not lose her real characteristics. The lyrical hero experiences all the hardships of unrequited love and is tormented that he has to break the sacred vow. The author’s most famous sonnet is 61, in which he is glad every minute spent with his lover:
"Blessed is the day, month, summer, hour
And the moment when my eyes met those eyes! "
The Petrarch Collection is a poetic confession in which he expresses his inner freedom and spiritual independence. He worries, but does not regret love. It is as if he justifies himself and glorifies earthly passion, because without love mankind cannot exist. The sonnet poem reflects this idea, and poets of a later time continue to support it.
Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375). Italian Renaissance
The great Renaissance writer (best known for his work, The Decameron) was an illegitimate child, so he was initially scorned, but his talent prevailed and the young poet gained recognition. Boccaccio was so moved by the death of Petrarch that he wrote a sonnet in his honor, in which he revealed the idea of the mortality of earthly life.
"To Sennuccio, joined Chino,
And to Dante you, and before you
Then the hidden from us appeared visibly. "
Giovanni Boccaccio dedicated sonnets to Dante Alighieri and other geniuses, and most importantly - to women. He called his beloved with one name - Fiametta, but his love is not as exalted as that of Petrarch, but more mundane. He slightly changes the genre of the sonnet and praises the beauty of the face, hair, cheeks, lips, writes about his attraction to the beauty and describes physiological needs. The pluta and the beloved of women expected a harsh fate: disappointed in the nature of beautiful creatures and having suffered betrayal, in 1362 Bokkaccio took the priesthood.
Pierre de Ronsard (1524-1585). French Renaissance
Born into a family of wealthy and noble parents, Pierre de Ronsard had every opportunity to get a good education. In 1542, he presented meager French poetry with new poetic dimensions and rhymes, for which he was deservedly called the "king of poets." Alas, he paid dearly for his successes and lost his hearing, but he did not leave the thirst for self-improvement. He considered Horace and Virgil the foremost ancient poets. Pierre de Ronsard was guided by the work of his predecessors: he knew what a sonnet was, and described the beauty of women, his love for them. The poet had three muses: Kassandra, Marie and Elena. In one of the sonnets, he confesses his love to a certain dark-haired and brown-eyed maiden and assures her that neither red-haired nor fair-eyed will ever evoke bright feelings in him:
"I have a brown eye blazing with living fire,
I don’t want to see gray eyes ... "
Translations of the sonnets of this author were performed by Russian writers of the twentieth century - Wilhelm Levik and Vladimir Nabokov.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616). English Renaissance
In addition to the magnificent comedies and tragedies recorded in the treasury of world literature, Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets, which are of particular interest to modern literary scholars. It was said of his works that "with this key he opened his heart." In some sonnets, the writer shared his emotional experiences, while in others he was restrained, dramatic. Shakespeare dedicated fourteen-poetrophic poems to his friend and the Dark Lady. Each sonnet has a number, so it’s easy to identify the gradation of the author’s feelings: if in the first works the lyric hero admires beauty, then after 17 sonnets pleas for reciprocity come. In poems number 27-28, this feeling is no longer joy, but obsession.
Shakespeare's sonnets were written not only on love topics: sometimes the author acts as a philosopher who dreams of immortality, and condemns vices. Nevertheless, a woman is a perfect creature for him, and he confidently claims that beauty is destined to save the world. In the famous sonnet 130, Shakespeare admires the earthly beauty of his beloved: her eyes cannot be compared with the stars, her complexion is far from the shade of a delicate rose, but in the last couplet he assures:
"And yet she will hardly give in to those
Who in the lush comparisons lied. "
Italian, French and English sonnets: similarities and differences
The Renaissance gave mankind many masterpieces of literature. Beginning in Italy in the thirteenth century, a little later the era passed to France, and two centuries later - to England. Each writer, being a native of one country or another, introduced some changes into the sonnet form, but the most relevant topics remained unchanged - the singing of the woman's beauty and love for her.
In a classic Italian sonnet, quatrains were written in two rhymes, terzets were allowed to write in two or three, and alternating male and female rhymes was optional. In other words, the stress in the stanza could fall on both the last and penultimate syllables.
In France, a ban on repeating words and using inaccurate rhymes was introduced. Quatrains from tercets were strictly separated from each other syntactically. Renaissance poets from France wrote sonnets with a tenfold syllable.
In England, innovation was introduced. Poets knew what a sonnet was, but instead of its usual form, consisting of two quatrains and two tercets, there were three quatrains and one couplet. The final stanzas were considered key and carried an expressive aphoristic maxim. The table shows the normalized rhyme variations in different countries.
Italy | abab abab cdc dcd (cde cde) |
France | abba abba ccd eed |
England | abab cdcd efef g |
Sonnet today
The fourteen-original form of the poem has successfully evolved into the work of modern writers. In the twentieth century, the most common was the French model. After Samuel Yakovlevich Marshak brilliantly translated Shakespeare's sonnets, the authors became interested in the English form. The latter is in demand even now. Despite the fact that all sonnets have been translated by outstanding literary geniuses, interest in this genre remains relevant until now: in 2009, Alexander Sharakshane released a collection with translations of all Shakespeare's sonnets.