Elizabethan Sonnets & Sonneteers (Lecture 3) PDF

Poetry from the Elizabethan Sonnets and Sonneteers. Renaissance to Shakespearean Sonnets. A Close Reading Romanticism of Sonnet 116. Lecture 3 The Literary Background of the Sonnet Genre: The sonnet originated in Italy in the fourteenth century....

Poetry from the Elizabethan Sonnets and Sonneteers. Renaissance to Shakespearean Sonnets. A Close Reading Romanticism of Sonnet 116. Lecture 3 The Literary Background of the Sonnet Genre: The sonnet originated in Italy in the fourteenth century. It is particularly associated with the name of Petrarch, though it had been used before him by Dante. It was originally a short poem. The word sonnet is derived from the Italian word ―sonnetto, meaning a little sound or strain. In course of time it became a short poem of fourteen lines with a set rhyme scheme. The sonnets of Petrarch and Dante were love sonnets. Petrarch addressed his sonnets to Laura and Dante to Beatrice. It enjoyed great popularity in Italy during the fifteenth century. In England Wyatt and Surrey began sonnet writing in imitation of the Italian sonnet. Wyatt introduced the Petrarchan model. He wrote 31 sonnets on the theme of love of rare beauty. Surrey gave a new turn to sonnet writing by introducing a new pattern which Shakespeare used later. His love sonnets were addressed to Lady Geraldine. They were marked by a note of melancholy and sadness. Thomas Watson was the earliest Elizabethan to make a reputation as a sonneteer. In 1582 he published one hundred ―passions or ―poems of love‖ which were described as sonnets, though many of them were of eighteen lines long. However, Watson‘s second volume of poems entitled The Tears of Fancy or Love Disdained were strictly confined to fourteen lines. The publication of Sidney‘s Astrophel and Stella marks the real beginning of Elizabethan sonnet. His sonnets clearly show the influence of Petrarch. Petrarch wrote his sonnets for his beloved Laura. Sidney‘s sonnets express his ardent passion for his beloved Penelope, the Stella of his sonnets. His sonnets are effusions of personal passion. These sonnets are remarkable for their sincerity. 1 He was the first English poet to indicate the lyric capacity of the sonnet. (lyric: poem expressing the poet's emotions, usually briefly and in stanzas). Sidney followed the Petrarchan scheme of sonnet. Spenser‘s Amoretti, a collection of 88 sonnets is memorable contribution to the art of sonnet writing. They are addressed to Elizabeth Boyle, whom he married. So an intimate, personal or autobiographical note runs in all of them. Spenser‘s sonnets are unique for their purity. They tell a story of love without sin or remorse. Shakespeare is the greatest writer of the sonnet form. His sonnets are the most precious pearls of Elizabethan lyricism. The form he chose was not the Italian or the Petrarchan form. He preferred the Spenserian pattern, consisting of three quatrains, each rhyming alternately, and rhyming couplet to conclude. Thomas Thorpe printed a collection of 154 sonnets of Shakespeare in 1609. It was dedicated to a ―Mr. W.H. and to a Dark Lady. The poet loved both of them dearly. The poet makes every allowance for the man, his youth, his attraction, his inexperience. He feels more bitterly towards the woman. She, he feels had turned his friend from him in sheer wantonness of spirit. He prefers the companionship of his friend to the company of the mistress. Henry Constable‘s sonnets are remarkable for melody, beauty and sensuousness. (melody: a sequence of single notes that is musically satisfying; a tune). Daniel‘s collection of sonnets, known as Delia, is based on the conventional theme of love and has stock devices of contemporary sonnet writing. The language of his sonnets is pure and versification is correct. Drayton is a distinguished sonneteer of Elizabethan Age. His sonnet sequence, known as Idea represents Platonic idea of beauty. He wrote fifty two sonnets. He uses typical stock devices. Dryton for the first time imparted dramatic element to sonnet writing. His sonnets suffer from lack of sincerity and artificiality. The other sonnet writers are Lodge, Fletcher and Percy. The Age of Shakespeare was the golden age of sonnet. Each poet contributed something new to the art of sonnet writing. The average Elizabethan sonnet illustrates the temper of the age. 2 It bears graphic witness to the Elizabethan tendency to borrow from foreign literary sources. Critical Study of William Shakespearean Sonnets: William Shakespeare was born in 1564 in the town of Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire, England. He was a son of a successful middle-class glove-maker. He attended grammar school, but his formal education proceeded no further. In 1582, he married an older woman, Anne Hathaway. He had three children with her. Around 1590 he left his family behind and traveled to London to work as an actor and playwright. Shakespeare eventually became the most popular playwright in England and part owner of the Globe Theatre. His career bridged the reigns of Elizabeth I (ruled 1558 – 1603) and James I (ruled 1603 – 1625). He was a favorite of both monarchs. Indeed, James granted Shakespeare‘s company the greatest possible compliment by endowing them with the status of king‘s players. Shakespeare retired to Stratford, and died in 1616 at the age of fifty-two. Shakespeare must be viewed as the author of the 37 plays and 154 sonnets that bear his name. The legacy of this body of work is immense. A number of Shakespeare‘s plays seem to have transcended even the category of brilliance, becoming so influential as to affect profoundly the course of Western literature and culture even after. Shakespeare has written 154 sonnets. 126 sonnets are addressed to a man and 28 sonnets are address to a woman. Though Shakespeare handled the old form of poetry called sonnet in European Literature, he deftly handled it and devised the some changes in the form which was later followed by other English sonneteers and this form of sonnet is known after his own name: Shakespearean Sonnet. Shakespeare‘s sonnets are very difficult from Shakespeare‘s plays, but they do contain dramatic elements and an overall sense of story. Each poem deals with a highly personal theme and each can be taken on its own or in relation to the poems around it. The sonnets have the feel of autobiographical poems, but we don‘t know whether they deal with real events or not, because no one knows enough about Shakespeare‘s life to say whether or not 3 they deal with real events and feelings, so we tend to refer to the voice of the sonnets as ―the speaker. The first hundred and twenty-six sonnets (126) in Shakespeare's volume appear to be addressed to a beautiful young man. They express a wide range of topics from poetry, painting and music, to nobility, the breeding of children, sexual betrayal, and the ravages of Time. The next batch, 127 to 152, moves away from the young man to a shady, mysterious, dark woman who is fascinating but treacherous. The poet's passions become more personal and intense compared with the friendship displayed in the first batch – his adulterous obsession with her; his feelings of inadequacy; and the disgust and revulsion he feels when she proves false. The last two sonnets seem inconsequential. They are imitations of Greek epigrams devoted to Cupid, a young votress of the goddess Diana, and a hot therapeutic spring. At first glance they seem separate from the dark lady sonnets but they form a poetic summing up of the poet's relationship with her and the reflections on love that are dealt with in detail in the other sonnets. Of all the questions about Shakespeare‘s life, the sonnets are perhaps the most intriguing (arousing one's curiosity and interest). At the time of their publication in 1609, they were dedicated to a ―Mr. W.H., who is described as the ―only begetter of the poems. Like those of the young man and the dark lady, the identity of this Mr. W.H. remains an alluring mystery because he is described as ―begetting‖ the sonnets, and because the young man seems to be the speaker‘s financial patron. Some people have speculated that the young man is Mr. W.H. If his initials were reversed, he might even be Henry Wriothesley, the Earl of Southampton, who has often been linked to Shakespeare in theories of his history. But all of this is simply speculation: ultimately, the circumstances surrounding the sonnets, their cast of characters and their relations to Shakespeare himself, are destined to remain a mystery. Whatever controversies rose on the identities of both the addressees, we may take these addressees as Shakespeare‘s beloved and his best friend with whom he must had shared his personal and intimate feelings. 4  LOCATING SHAKESPEARE IN THE HISTORY OF SONNET: A sonnet is a fourteen-line lyric poem, traditionally written in iambic pentameter. It is written in 14 lines. Each line contains ten syllables. Each line has a short and a long syllable pattern as in: ―Shall I compare thee to a summer‘s day? Two kinds of sonnets have been most common in English poetry. They take their names from the greatest poets to utilize them: the Petrarchan sonnet and the Shakespearean sonnet. The Petrarchan sonnet is divided into two main parts, called the octave and the sestet. The octave is eight lines long, and typically follows a rhyme scheme of ABBAABBA, or ABBACDDC. The sestet occupies the remaining six lines of the poem, and typically follows a rhyme scheme of CDCDCD, or CDECDE. The octave and the sestet are usually contrasted in some key way: for example, the octave may ask a question to which the sestet offers an answer. The Shakespearean sonnet, The form of sonnet utilized throughout Shakespeare‘s sequence, is divided into four parts. The first three parts are each four lines long, and are known as quatrains, rhymed ABAB. The fourth part is called the couplet, and is rhymed CC. The Shakespearean sonnet is often used to develop a sequence of metaphors or ideas, one in each quatrain, while the couplet offers either a summary or a new take on the preceding images or images or ideas. Thematic Elements Modern readers associate the sonnet form with romantic love and with good reason. The first sonnets written in thirteenth century Italy celebrated the poet‘s feelings for their beloveds and their patrons. These sonnets were addressed to stylized, lionized women and dedicated to wealthy noblemen, who supported poets with money and other gifts. Shakespeare dedicated his sonnets to ―Mr. W. H.. He dedicated an earlier set of poems, Venus and Adonis and Rape of Lucrece, to Henry Wriothesly, earl of Southampton, but it‘s not 5 known what Wriothesly gave him for this honor. In contrast to tradition, Shakespeare addressed most of his sonnets to an unnamed young man, possibly Wriothesly. Addressing sonnets to a young man was unique in Elizabethan England. Furthermore, Shakespeare used his sonnets to explore different types of love between the young man and the speaker, the young man and the dark lady, and the dark lady and the speaker. Several sonnets also probe the nature of love, comparing the idealized love found in poems with the messy, complicated love found in real life. Poetic Motifs Shakespeare portrays time as an enemy of love. Time destroys love because time causes beauty to fade, people to age, and life to end. One common convention of sonnets is to flatter either a beloved or a patron by promising immortality through verse. In Shakespeare‘s Sonnet 15, the speaker speaks of being ―in was with time‖. Time causes the young man‘s beauty to fade, but the speaker‘s verse shall entomb the young man and keep him beautiful. Through art, nature and beauty overcome time. Several sonnets use the seasons to symbolize the passage of time and to show that everything in nature is mortal. But nature creates beauty, which poets capture and render immortal in their verse. Use of Symbols Shakespeare employed many symbols in his poetic composition. Flowers and trees appear throughout the sonnets to illustrate the passage of time, the transience of life, the aging process, and beauty. Rich, lush foliage symbolizes youth, whereas barren trees symbolize old age death. Traditionally, roses signify romantic love. Rose as a symbol employed by Shakespeare in the sonnets signifies its attractiveness and fragrance in relation to the young man. Sometimes Shakespeare compares flowers and weeds to contrast beauty and ugliness. Shakespeare uses stars to stand in for fate, a common poetic trope, but also to explore the nature of free will. Many sonneteers employ the stars as symbols which symbolizes fate. This symbol of 6 star proves that their love is permanent and predestined. In contrast, Shakespeare‘s speaker claims that he relies, to make decisions, on his eyes rather than on the hands of fate. Using his eyes, the speaker reads that the young man‘s good fortune and beauty shall pass to his children. During Shakespeare‘s time, people generally believed in astrology because the scholars were engaged in the metaphysical system for ordering the universe. CRITICAL STUDY OF SHAKESPEARE’ SONNET NO. 116 Text of the Poem Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments. Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove: O, no! it is an ever-fixed mark, That looks on tempests and is never shaken; It is the star to every wandering bark, Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken. Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks Within his bending sickle's compass come; Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, But bears it out even to the edge of doom. If this be error and upon me proved, I never writ, nor no man ever loved. Summary of the Poem: This sonnet attempts to define love, by telling both what it is and is not. In the first quatrain, the speaker says that love—”the marriage of true minds”—is perfect and unchanging; it does not “admit impediments,” and it does not change when it find changes in the loved one. In the first quatrain of the sonnet the speaker doesn‘t admit that anything can interfere with the union of two hearts and minds of the people who truly love each other. He is sure that true love can‘t be separated from each other. To him, the definition of true love is that the true love is a constant, steadfast and fixed phenomenon which doesn‘t change in any condition. Love, he says, isn‘t really a love if it changes when it sees the beloved or lover changes or it disappears when the beloved or lover leaves. Love that 7 alters with changing circumstances is not love, nor does it bend from its firm state when someone tries to destroy it. In the second quatrain of the sonnet, the speaker compares love with ―ever-fixed mark and ―star for their qualities and attributes of steadfastness (faithfulness). Love can‘t be shattered by anyone; it is a constant and unchanging light that shines on storms without being shaken. It is an eternally fixed point that watches storms but is never itself shaken by them. It is the star which guides every wandering boat and by which every lost ship can be guided. One can calculate its distance but not gauge its quality. And like a star, its value is beyond measure, though its height can be measured. The third stanza continues with the argument for the eternity of love. Love doesn't depend on Time, although the rosy lips and cheeks of youth eventually come within the compass of Time's sickle. In other words love is not under time‘s power, though time has the power to destroy the living beings. Love doesn't alter as the days and weeks go by but endure until death and doomsday. The last couplet is a concluding statement of the speaker. He confidently states that If he‘s wrong about his view on nature of love then he has never written anything and no man has ever loved. Analysis of the Poem: Sonnet 116 is about love in its most ideal form. It is praising the glories of lovers who have come to each other freely, and enter into a relationship based on trust and understanding. The first four lines reveal the poet's pleasure in love that is constant and strong, and will not "alter when it alteration finds." The following lines proclaim that true love is indeed an "ever-fix'd mark" which will survive any crisis. In lines 7-8, the poet claims that we may be able to measure love to some degree, but this does not mean we fully understand it. Love's actual worth cannot be known – it remains a mystery. The remaining lines of the third quatrain (9- 12), reaffirm the perfect nature of love that is unshakeable throughout time and remains so "ev'n to the edge of doom", or death. 8  In the final couplet, the poet declares that, if he is mistaken about the constant, unmovable nature of perfect love, then he must take back all his writings on love, truth, and faith. Moreover, he adds that, if he has in fact judged love inappropriately, no man has ever really loved, in the ideal sense that the poet professes. 9