The sonnet is an Italian verse-form, in fourteen five-stress lines,
introduced into England at the time of the Italian literary influences
of the sixteenth century. Almost from the first, the English sonnet has
been divided into two classes: one based on more or less strict
imitation of the structure of the Italian form, and variously called the
Italian, the regular, or the legitimate sonnet; the other taking the
Italian sonnet as the point of departure, but constructed according to
more familiar English rime-schemes, and commonly called the Shaksperian
or the English sonnet.
The origin of the sonnet in southern Europe is a matter of some
disagreement. Some scholars trace it to the _canzone_ strophe (_e.g._
Gaspary, in his _Geschichte der Italienischen Literatur_), others to the
combination of the _ottava rima_ with a six-line stanza (Welti, in his
_Geschichte des Sonettes in der deutschen Dichtung_), others to
Provençal and even German influence. (See Schipper, vol. ii. pp. 835
ff., and Lentzner's _Das Sonett und seine Gestaltung in der englischen
Dichtung_, p. 1.) It seems first to have been a recognized form in Italy
in the latter part of the thirteenth century (see Tomlinson's _The
Sonnet: its Origin, Structure, and Place in Poetry_); and was made
glorious by Dante, Michael Angelo, Tasso, Ariosto, and--above
all--Petrarch. On the different forms of the Italian sonnet, see
Tomlinson's essay, just cited.
"The object of the regular or legitimate Italian sonnet," says Mr.
Tomlinson, "is to express one, and only one, idea, mood, sentiment, or
proposition, and this must be introduced ... in the first quatrain, and
so far explained in the second, that this may end in a full point; while
the office of the first tercet is to prepare the leading idea of the
quatrains for the conclusion, which conclusion is to be perfectly
carried out in the second tercet, so that it may contain the fundamental
idea of the poem." (pp. 27, 28.)
The Italian form is always marked by the division into octave and
sestet, although English usage has been very irregular in marking this
division by a full pause. The octave is based on only two rimes
(_abbaabba_); the sestet on either two or three, the most common
arrangements being _cdecde, cdcdcd, cdedce_, and _cddcee_.
With regard to the pause at the point of division Lentzner says: "It
should not be a full pause, because this would produce the effect of a
gap or breaking-off, ...--not like the speaker who has reached the end
of what he has to say, but like one who reflects on what has already
been said, and then takes fresh breath to complete his theme."[35]
Most critics prefer those forms of sestet which avoid a final riming
couplet. This Mr. Courthope explains as follows: "The reason for the
avoidance of the couplet in the second portion of the sonnet is, I
think, plain. In the first eight lines the thought ascends to a climax;
this part of the sonnet may be said to contain the premises of the
poetical syllogism. In the last six lines the idea descends to a
conclusion, and as the two divisions are of unequal length it is
necessary that the lesser should be the more individualised. Hence
while, in the first part, the expression of the thought is massed and
condensed by reduplications of sound, and the general movement is
limited by quatrains; in the second part the clauses are separated by
the alternation of the rhymes, the movement is measured by tercets, and
the whole weight of the rhetorical emphasis is thrown into the last
line." (_History of English Poetry_, vol. ii. p. 91.)
The sonnet has remained, since its introduction into English poetry, a
favorite form among poets and critics, but has never become genuinely
popular. It is suited, of course, only for the expression of dignified
and careful thinking; and the difficulty of giving it unity and
confining the content to the precise limit of fourteen lines has made
perfect success in the form a rare attainment. Furthermore, the
complexity of the rime-scheme--the distance at which one rime responds
to another--makes the appreciation of the form a matter of some
delicacy, less suited to the prevailingly simple taste of the English
ear than to the more complex taste of the Italian.
The following specimens are classified only in the two principal groups
of the Italian and the English form. The common test of the Italian form
is that the rime-scheme shall separate the first eight lines from the
rest, these eight lines ordinarily showing "inclusive rime" of the
_abba_ type; the test of the English form is that the rime-scheme shall
separate the first twelve lines from the last two, the twelve lines
ordinarily showing alternate rime.
Schipper groups English sonnets in five classes: (1) the strict Italian
form, with pause between octave and sestet; (2) the Surrey-Shakspere or
English form; (3) the Spenserian form; (4) the Miltonic form, with
correct rime-arrangement but general neglect of the bipartite structure;
(5) the modern Italian or Wordsworthian form, following the regular
rime-scheme in general, but often with a third or even a fourth rime in
the octave, and treated as a single strophe. (_Englische Metrik_, vol.
ii. p. 878.)[36]