The Development Of The Sonnet

In this indispensible introductory study of the sonnet, Michael R.G. Spiller takes the reader on an illuminating guided tour. He begins with the invention of the sonnet in thirteenth-century Italy and traces its progress through to the time of Milton, showing how the form has developed and acquired the capacity to express lyrically 'the nature of the desiring self'. In doing so he provides a concise critical account of the major British sonnet writers in relation to the sonnet's history. Tailor-made for students' needs, this will be an essential purchase for anyone studying this enduring poetic form. Poets covered include: Petrarch, Wyatt, Sidney, Shakespeare, Spenser, Milton and Dante.

First published in 1972, this book examines the sonnet, one of the most complex yet accessible of verse forms. It traces its history, concentrating primarily on its technical development, and fully explains the differences between the Italian and English sonnet. The study looks at several different kinds of sonnet, including condensed and expanded sonnets, inverted and tailed sonnets and irregularities of metre and rhyme, and concludes with a survey of the sonnet sequence. This book will be useful to students of prosody and English poetry as well as those concerned with the practice of verse.

"Few poetic forms have found more uses than the sonnet in English, and none is now more recognizable. It is one of the longest-lived of verse forms, and one of the briefest. A mere fourteen lines, fashioned by intricate rhymes, it is, as Dante Gabriel Rossetti called it, "a moment's monument." From the Renaissance to the present, the sonnet has given poets a superb vehicle for private contemplation, introspection, and the expression of passionate feelings and thoughts." "The Art of the Sonnet collects one hundred exemplary sonnets of the English language (and a few sonnets in translation), representing highlights in the history of the sonnet, accompanied by short commentaries on each of the poems. The commentaries by Stephen Burt and David Mikics offer new perspectives and insights, and, taken together, demonstrate the enduring as well as changing nature of the sonnet. The authors serve as guides to some of the most-celebrated sonnets in English as well as less-well-known gems by nineteenth- and twentieth-century poets. Also included is a general introductory essay, in which the authors examine the sonnet form and its long and fascinating history, from its origin in medieval Sicily to its English appropriation in the sixteenth century to sonnet writing today in the United States, the United Kingdom, and other English-speaking parts of the world." --Book Jacket.

First published in 1992. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Seminar paper from the year 2005 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,0, University of Cologne, course: Forms and Genres of Poetry in Literatures in English: From 1500 to the Present, language: English, abstract: The sonnet is a form of verse used continuously for more than 750 years now, according to Spiller (1992: ix). It “is probably the longest-lived of all poetic forms, and certainly the longest-lived of all prescribed forms,” according to him (1992: 2). It is a verse form having a prescribed number of lines, namely fourteen, each consisting of ten syllables if written in English (Murfin, Ray 1998: 372-373). The sonnet has to have a division into certain parts and must follow a rhyme scheme, which is allowed to vary in certain ways (compare Oliphant 1932: 136). It is fascinating that such a prescribed verse form is so attractive to poets. It is definitely a challenge to come to a point having fourteen lines of equal length that also have to rhyme in a certain way. This is a reason to look at the structure of sonnets and its relation to the sonnets’ content in detail. This will be done in the following chapters of this research paper. First, the different types of the sonnet will be explained theoretically. Afterwards, examples of the different types will be given and analyzed. In addition to the common types, there will be a differing example shown. Conclusions are drawn in chapter four.

This study of the Elizabethan sonnet describes the development of the English sonnet, from the Petrarch-influenced poems of Wyatt and Surrey, to the great original sonnets of Sidney, Spenser and Shakespeare. -- From publisher's description.