Shakespearean sonnets
and
Petrarchan sonnets
Q. The superiority of Shakespearean sonnets to the conventional Elizabethan Petrarchan sonnets
Answer: The Elizabethan sonneteers, before Shakespeare, were inspired by the great Italian master- Petrarch. Following the tradition of Petrarch, they introduced in English literature a new form of poetry – the sonnet.
The Italian form of the sonnet (more commonly known as the Petrarchan sonnet) as Dante and Petrarch used it comprises fourteen lines along with eleven syllables. It has two unequal parts of eight lines and six lines respectively. The first part is called the octave and the last sestet. The rhyme scheme of the Petrarchan sonnet consists
abba, abba, cde, cde or cdc, cdc, or cde, dec, etc.
👉 Theme of the Petrarchan Sonnets
The conventional Petrarchan sonnet has a unity not only in its design but also in its theme and emotion. In fact, the singleness of feeling and of the subject matter is the key element in the sonnet and mostly differentiates from every other form of lyrical poetry.
Petrarchan Sonnets traditionally deals with the theme of amorous love, its passion and pain and also its longing and frustration. The main intention of the Petrarchan sonneteers seems to idealize the glory of love and virtue of the lady-love. Love is idealized and elevated through the lover’s earnest entreaty to a lady, fair and honest, but unresponsive to his approach. The lady is drawn with a chivalrous admiration and all her qualities are portrayed with all graces and charms, despite the lover’s frantic, fruitless appeal to win her favour.
👉 The trend of the glorifying love in Petrarchan Sonnets
This trend of the glorification of love and the beloved woman is well marked in the remarkable sonnets of the Elizabethan age - in the beautiful works of Wyatt, Surrey, Sir Philip Sidney and Spencer. The singleness of emotion is also distinctly marked. This emotion is usually of love and the varied modes of love.
In Sydney’s sonnet series, Astrophel and Stella, the theme of devotion to love is warmly celebrated. Spenser's sonnet sequence Amoretti contains the spectacular representation of the passion of love. Wyatt's sonnet, like A Renouncing of Love and I Find No Peace, depict the reaction of frustrated love. The range of these Petrarchan sonnets is startling and covers also the flowery sequences of the character of Cupid and his exploits and so on.
👉 Shakespearean influence upon the theme of sonnet
Shakespeare, however, revolutionised the form of sonnet writings with his creative genius and poetic sensibility. He made departure from the conventional Petrarchan sonneteers in his theme, treatment and technique. As a matter of fact, Shakespeare has transcended the pattern of the conventional Petrarchan sonnet and set up in new way before the English sonneteers. He has opened wide the thematic as well as technical novelty in sonnet rating.
Of course, Shakespearean sonnets are not devoid of the harmonious unity of the theme, the poetic feeling and the technique of versification of the Petrarchan. They have wonderfully attained a harmonious unity in their subject-matter mood and expression.
👉 Theme of the Shakespearean sonnets
Shakespeare’s theme in his sonnet is somewhat different from the conventional subject of love, found in most of the Petrarchan sonnets. The bulk of his sonnets (126 sonnets) are addressed to a friend of a somewhat controversial identity. Instead of following the beaten track of amorous-love, these Shakespearean sonnets adore masculine friendship and try to preserve it by the magic of their creator’s verse.
Even in his 26 sonnets, addressed to a dark lady, Shakespeare’s deviation from the conventional pattern of the Elizabethan love sonnets is conspicuous. His lady is not beautiful and kind but dark and cruel. The poet’s emphasis is laid not on her virtue or devotion, but rather on her whim and frailty. The poet sings not of a fair and modest Stella (as in Sydney's sonnet series), but he is eager to please her with his verse. He is not concerned, too, (as in Wyatt's sonnets) with the angry declamation of a disgruntled lover, seeking a second hand refuge. The poet also does not speak, like Spencer, of the decoration in the world of nature as a prelude to love-making.
👉 Conventional theme of Shakespearean sonnets
Shakespeare’s sonnet is rather the song of the deep rooted devotion of a heart that adores friendship over everything else, or is attached rather strangely to a hard and painful buddy who embodies the frailty of a woman’s love. In the eyes of the poet, love remains above the wreck of time and is eternized by his immortal lines:
“When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st!
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.” (Shall I Compare thee......)
“And yet to times in hope, my verse shall stand,
Praising the worth, despite his cruel hand.” (Like as the waves.....)
Shakespeare's sonnets are particularly marked with his ardent faith in the immortality of his art. Here, again he stands different from and superior to the conventional Petrarchan sonneteers. None before him could ever foresee the power of verse to immortalise love or could fancy in the triumph of art over the ravages of time and its power to shine forever in the mortal world.
👉 Differences between the sonnets of Shakespeare and Petrarch
The Shakespearean sonnets have also a technique different from what is found in the Petrarchan. Of course, the technical innovation, found in Shakespeare, was not originally invented by him, but had been first attempted by the Duke of Surrey. Nevertheless, it was in the hand of Shakespeare that the new form of sonnet-writing achieved perfection and attained distinction and popularity.
The technical innovation made by Shakespeare, following Surrey, consists of the division of the sonnet into four parts. The fourteen lines of his sonnet contain three quatrains and a concluding couplet. The rhyme scheme is- abab, cdcd, efef, gg. There are altogether 7 rhymes, instead of five in the usual Petrarchan variety. In the Petrarchan sonnet, the subject matter is set forth in the octave and developed in the sestet. In the Shakespearean type, the subject is stated in the quatrains and summed up in the concluding couplet. The organisation of the sonnet is a little complex but quite compact and orderly.
👉 Conclusion
Thus, the Shakespearean sonnet, while following the fundamental unity of the Petrarchan sonnet, has made a great reformation of the same. The sonnets beginning with ‘Let me not to the Marriage of True Minds’, ‘That Time of Year’, ‘Time and Love, ‘Shall I compare the to a Summer's Day’ and many others fully testify to Shakespeare's mighty deviation from his predecessors in the art of sonnet writing. They exemplify how Shakespeare has transcended the narrow and conventional pattern of the Petrarchan sonneteers, while fully maintaining the essential unity in theme, mood and imagery in a classic sonnet.
*****
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