The+sonnet+and+sonnet+sequence

There are two basic forms of the sonnet, the Petrarchan or Italian sonnet and the Shakespearean or English sonnet. The two different forms are often referred to as Petrarchan and Shakespearean as to not confuse the type of sonnet with the language in which it was composed (Chapman 99). Both sonnets contain fourteen lines and differ in their form and rhyme scheme. In her essay on the sonnet, Alison Chapman describes the different forms of the Petrarchan and Shakespearean sonnet. According to Chapman, the Petrarchan sonnet consists of an octave and a sestet, with a rhyme scheme of // abbaabba cdecde / cdccdc //, and a volta (a turn in thought) at line nine (99). In contrast, the Shakespearean sonnet consists of three-quatrains, and a couplet with a rhyme scheme of // abab cdcd efef gg. // Though there are many other forms, a Shakespearean sonnet generally features a volta in its concluding couplet (99).

The sonnet as a genre had been going through a rehabilitation since 1750, but it was Wordsworth who gave the revival of the sonnet a new intensity during the Victorian period (Chapman 99). Wordsworth had a dramatic conversion to the sonnet after 1801, when his sister read him some of Milton’s sonnets (99). Wordsworth defends the use of the sonnet as a poetic genre, but only the Petrarchan sonnet (99). Wordsworth, and the majority of sonnet commentators, believed that the Petrarchan sonnet was the only “legitimate” form of the sonnet, and that “any example of a sonnet which is a hybrid of types, or flouts the sonnet laws and conventions, is condemned as irregular, illegitimate, or a violation” (100).

The sonnet as a poetic genre was believed to have a relationship between its form and content. The sonnet was thought of as small and beautiful, but yet could transform and transcend its small size (Chapman 101). Common motifs of the sonnet were love, worship of a loved one, and some sort of struggle to know and understand itself (the poem) (Spiller 2). In the Victorian era, the conventional narrative form of the Petrarchan sonnet was a male speaker who addresses an ideal female beloved who is absent, unattainable, or dead (Chapman 102). Therefore, because of the conventions of the Petrarchan sonnet in the Victorian period, women poets were faced with conventions that lead them into silence (102). However, the strict formula of the sonnet was often played with and resisted, particularly by female poets, but also by other famous male poets such as [|Hopkins] and [|Meredith] (102). Meredith’s resistance to the form of the Petrarchan sonnet is clearly displayed in his poem // Modern Love //, in which the sonnets within the poem each consist of sixteen lines, instead of the conventional fourteen.

Meredith’s // Modern Love // is a perfect example of how a poet resists the conventions of a poetic genre; moreover, it is also a perfect example of a sonnet sequence or cycle. A sonnet sequence or cycle is a collection of poems, predominantly sonnets, linked together by something other than authorship (Spiller 16). Essentially, the sonnet sequence or cycle is a series of sonnets that make up one continual poem (16). The length of a sequence can be anywhere from three sonnets to four-hundred (18). Meredith’s [|//Modern Love//] is one of the more well-known sonnet sequences, consisting of fifty sixteen-line sonnets. Other well-known sonnet sequences are Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s [|//Sonnets from the Portuguese//] and Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s // [|The House of Life]( //Spiller 31). The contribution of the sonnet sequence is said to be, arguably, the most significant contribution of the Victorians to the poetic genre (Chapman 102). The way the sonnet was re-invented in the Victorian era helped to solidify it as a legitimate poetic genre. -- UVic Engl 386/2012W **Works Cited** Chapman, Alison. "Sonnet and Sonnet Sequence." // A Companion to Victorian Poetry. // Ed. Alison Chapman, Richard Cronin, and Antony H. Harrison. Malden, Mass: Blackwell Publishers, 2002. 99-114. Print.

Spiller, Michael R.G.// The Sonnet Sequence: A Study of its Strategies. //London: Prentice-Hall International, 1997. 2-31. Print.