A sonnet is a type of poem with a set structure that usually has fourteen lines and follows a specific pattern of rhymes. The word "sonnet" comes from the Italian word "sonetto," which means "little song" and is based on the Latin word "sonus," meaning "sound." The sonnet began in 13th-century Sicily and later became popular in many European countries. At first, it was often used to write about romantic love, but over time, it could be used to write about any topic. In modern times, some versions of the sonnet no longer use the 14-line structure or rhyme.

Romance languages

Giacomo da Lentini is believed to have created the sonnet at the court of Frederick II in Palermo, Sicily. The poets of the Sicilian School, who were close to Lentini, later shared this form with other regions. The earliest sonnets no longer exist in Sicilian but only in translations into the Tuscan dialect. The sonnet structure included two quatrains followed by two tercets, with a rhyme pattern of A B A B A B A B C D C D C D. The poem’s meaning changed direction after the middle of the piece.

Peter Dronke noted that the sonnet’s flexible form helped it survive and spread beyond Sicily. William Baer pointed out that the first eight lines of early Sicilian sonnets matched the eight-line structure of a Sicilian folk song called the Strambotto. Da Lentini (or whoever created the form) added two tercets to the Strambotto to make the 14-line sonnet.

Hassanally Ladha argued that the Sicilian sonnet’s structure and themes were influenced by Arabic poetry and cannot be called an invention of the Sicilian School. He stated that the sonnet’s early form showed connections to Arabic poetry like the qasida. He also noted that the sonnet did not first appear with the 14-line structure. Instead, some early poems were only six lines long, with four rows and two "tercets" each. Ladha believed the sonnet continued a tradition of love poetry across the Mediterranean, including forms like the Sicilian Strambotto, the Provençal Canso, the Andalusi Arabic Muwashshah and Zajal, and the qasida.

Guittone d’Arezzo brought the sonnet to Tuscany, where he adapted it to the Tuscan dialect. He started the Siculo-Tuscan, or Guittonian, school of poetry (1235–1294) and wrote nearly 250 sonnets. Later, Dante Alighieri and Guido Cavalcanti became famous for their sonnets, but Petrarch was the most influential.

The Italian sonnet typically had two parts: the octave (eight lines) and the sestet (six lines). The octave introduced a problem or question, while the sestet provided a resolution. The ninth line, called the "turn" or "volta," marked a shift in tone or direction. Even in sonnets that did not follow this structure, the ninth line often signaled a change.

Later, the rhyme pattern A B B A A B B A became standard for the octave. The sestet had two possible patterns: C D E C D E or C D C C D C. Over time, other variations were used, such as C D C D C D or C D E D C E. Petrarch usually used A B B A A B B A for the octave and either C D E C D E or C D C C D C for the sestet.

At the start of the 14th century, early examples of sonnet sequences about a single theme appeared. Folgore da San Gimignano wrote a series about the months of the year and the days of the week. Earlier, Dante published La Vita Nuova, a collection of sonnets and other poems about his love for Beatrice. Most of these sonnets followed Petrarch’s style. In Chapter VII, the sonnet "O voi che per la via" had two sestets (A A B A A B A A B A A B) and two quatrains (C D D C C D D C). In Chapter VIII, "Morte villana" had two sestets (A A B B B A A A B B B A) and two quatrains (C D D C C D D C). Petrarch later wrote 366 sonnets in Canzoniere, describing his lifelong love for Laura.

Sonnet writing became common in Italy. Some famous people, like painters Giotto and Michelangelo, and astronomer Galileo, also wrote sonnets. In the 16th century, 661 poets were listed by Giovanni Mario Crescimbeni. Sonnets were so popular that even small events were celebrated with them, as one historian wrote: "No event was too small to be honored with a sonnet."

The only confirmed sonnet in Occitan (a language of southern France) is by Paolo Lanfranchi da Pistoia, dated to 1284. It used the rhyme pattern A B A B A B A B C D C D C D and had a political theme. Other Occitan sonnets with uncertain authenticity are attributed to "William of Almarichi" and Dante de Maiano.

One of the earliest Catalan sonnets was written by Pere Torroella (1436–1486). In the 16th century, Pere Serafí was the most productive and skilled Catalan sonnet writer, publishing over 60 sonnets between 1560 and 1565.

The Spanish poet Íñigo López de Mendoza, 1st Marquis of Santillana, is credited with writing sonnets in the Italian style around the mid-15th century. However, the Spanish language and poetic rules were still changing, so his attempts were not successful. It was not until 1526 that Juan Boscán reintroduced the sonnet. He met Andrea Navagero, a Venetian ambassador, while Navagero was visiting the Alhambra with King Charles V. Navagero encouraged Boscán to write sonnets and other Italian forms in Spanish.

Boscán worked with Garcilaso de la Vega, a talented poet and friend. Their sonnets followed Petrarch’s model, used the hendecasyllable (a 11-syllable line), and reflected the Neoplatonic ideal of love, as described in Il Cortegiano, a book Boscán had translated. Their work was later praised by Fernando de Herrera, who was called "the first major Spanish sonneteer after Garcilaso." During the Baroque period, Luis de Góngora (later known as Gongorismo) and Francisco de Quevedo led rival poetic styles, with Góngora using complex language and Quevedo using sharp, witty expressions.

Germanic languages

Sir Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, are known as "the first English Petrarchans" because they helped introduce the sonnet form in English. Some 25 of Wyatt's poems are based on Petrarch's work, either as translations or imitations. Of Surrey's five poems, three are translations and two are imitations. In one case, both poets translated the same poem, Rime 140. These examples show differences in their styles. Wyatt's verse metre is mostly decasyllabic but has irregular patterns, using stressed phrases. His sonnets are also closer in structure to Petrarch's.

Surrey was better at writing in iambic pentameter, a rhythm later called "Shakespearean measure." This form has three rhyming quatrains followed by a final couplet (ABAB, CDCD, EFEF, GG). It became popular during the Elizabethan era, especially in love poems like Sir Philip Sidney's Astrophel and Stella (1591). Around 4,000 sonnets were written during this time. However, many were seen as repetitive, leading some poets like Sir John Davies and William Shakespeare to criticize them. Shakespeare's Sonnet 130, "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun," mocked this trend.

Shakespeare's 154 sonnets differ by addressing more than one person, including both men and women. Some of his sonnets were used in his plays. Another example is Edmund Spenser's Amoretti, which uses a different rhyme pattern (ABAB BCBC CDCD EE).

In the 1590s, sonnets shifted from love themes to religious topics. Barnabe Barnes' Divine Centurie of Spirituall Sonnets (1595) began with "No more lewde laies of lighter loues I sing." Other religious sonnets include Henry Lok's work on Ecclesiastes (1597), Henry Constable's Spirituall Sonnettes (c. 1600), and Nicholas Breton's The Soule's Harmony (1602). John Donne's Holy Sonnets used complex ideas, similar to French religious poems.

John Milton's sonnets show another change. His early works were inspired by Petrarch, but his later ones dealt with personal and political themes. Some of his sonnets used a style called the "caudate sonnet," a variation from Italian poetry.

The popularity of sonnets declined after the Restoration in 1660 and remained low until the late 18th century. Thomas Warton revived the form, using Milton as a model. Others, like Charlotte Smith and William Lisle Bowles, also wrote sonnets. Smith's Elegiac Sonnets (1784 onwards) influenced the "school of sensibility." However, some critics, like William Beckford, mocked her style.

In the 19th century, poets like Wordsworth praised the sonnet's ability to express complex ideas. He wrote over 500 sonnets, influencing many others. His focus on nature and new themes helped popularize the form. Milton's political themes also inspired poets like Wordsworth. By the 1820s, some critics worried about the overuse of sonnets, calling it "sonnettomania."

During the Romantic era, poets used sonnets to demonstrate their versatility. Wordsworth's "Nuns fret not at their narrow room" (1807) had a volta after seven lines. Keats' "If by dull rhymes our English must be chained" (1816) used enjambment and divided the poem into four tercets and a couplet.

Jewish languages

For thousands of years, Jewish communities around the world have created literature in many languages. The sonnet, a type of poem, was written in two languages, mostly in Europe and later in other parts of the world by people who moved there.

In Hebrew, the word for a sonnet is shir zahav, which means "golden song." The word zahav also has a special meaning in numerology. Its letters represent numbers that add up to fourteen, which is the number of lines in a sonnet.

The first Hebrew sonnets were likely written by Immanuel the Roman in Rome around the year 1300. This was less than 100 years after the Italian sonnet was created. Immanuel’s collection of poems, Mahberot Immanuel, includes 38 sonnets that mix traditional Hebrew and Arabic poetic styles with Italian styles. These poems mostly focus on love and follow a rhyme pattern: A B B A A B B A C D E C D E.

Immanuel’s work inspired other Hebrew poets to write sonnets. The first printed version of Mahberot Immanuel was published in Brescia in 1492, and a second version appeared in Constantinople in 1535. This time period, the early 16th century, saw the sonnet become popular in many European languages. It remained important through the Baroque period of the 17th century, with over 80 poets writing sonnets. While many poems focused on religious themes, love poems were still written, especially by David Okineira of Salonika. Like Shakespeare in England and Lope da Vega in Spain, some Jewish poets included sonnets in plays. Examples include Yesod Olam by Moses ben Mordecai Zacuto and Asirei ha-Tiqva by Joseph de la Vega. In the 18th century, poets like Samson Cohen Modon, Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, and Ephraim Luzzatto helped shape modern Hebrew literature.

The sonnet form continued into the 20th century. Shaul Tchernichovsky celebrated this in his 1923 collection Maḥberet ha-Sonetot, which included a sonnet honoring the tradition started by Immanuel of Rome. He also introduced a new poetic form called the "crown of sonnets" to Hebrew poetry.

Yiddish, a group of German dialects spoken by Jewish people in Eastern Europe, has had a literary tradition since the Middle Ages. However, the sonnet was not widely used at first in Yiddish writing because it was seen as unfamiliar. It became more common later, especially as Jewish people gained access to education and moved to new places.

The first Yiddish sonnet writers were Dovid Kenigsberg and Fradl Shtok. Kenigsberg published Soneten in 1913 and later Hundert Soneten in 1921. Shtok began writing poetry in New York after moving there in 1910. Earlier Yiddish sonnets were written in the United States by Morris Vintshevski in the 1890s and in Vilnius by Leib Naidus starting in 1910. These poets were influenced by modernist styles from Western Europe.

In Europe, poets like Gershon-Peysekh Vayland, Yankev Gotlib, and Abraham Nahum Stencl published entire collections of sonnets. In the United States, N. B. Minkoff included a sonnet cycle in his 1924 book Lieder, and Aron Glantz-Leyeles published a collection of poems in medieval styles in 1926. Yoysef-Leyzer Kalushiner published a book of sonnets in 1932, and M. Freed wrote The Narcissi in Bukovina before moving to the United States. Later collections include Sonnets of chaos by Yirmye Hesheles and Sonetn by Mani Leib, which is considered one of the greatest works of Yiddish poetry. Austridan Oystriak published Meksike in Mexico City in 1949 after fleeing Europe.

In Israel, where Hebrew was the preferred language, Yiddish sonnets were rare. Samuel Jacob Taubes and Shlomo Roitman wrote sonnets in Europe before moving to Israel. Taubes focused on religious themes, while Roitman began writing in Russia and continued in Israel.

Slavic languages

The sonnet began to appear in Czech literature at the start of the 19th century. The first important Czech poet who wrote sonnets was Ján Kollár. He created a series of sonnets called Slávy Dcera (The Daughter of Sláva / The Daughter of Fame). Although Kollár was Slovak, he supported the idea of uniting all Slavic peoples and wrote in Czech, believing that Slovak should not be considered a separate language. His most important work was planned as a large Slavic epic poem, similar in size to Dante's Divine Comedy. It includes a section called The Prelude, written in a meter called quantitative hexameters, and many sonnets. The number of poems grew in later editions, reaching 645. Another major Czech Romantic poet, Karel Hynek Mácha, also wrote many sonnets. In the second half of the 19th century, Jaroslav Vrchlický published a collection called Sonety samotáře (Sonnets of a Solitudinarian). Another poet, Josef Svatopluk Machar, wrote many sonnets and published Čtyři knihy sonetů (The Four Books of Sonnets). In the 20th century, Vítězslav Nezval wrote a cycle called 100 sonetů zachránkyni věčného studenta Roberta Davida (One Hundred Sonnets for the Woman Who Rescued Perpetual Student Robert David). After World War II, the sonnet became a favorite form for Oldřich Vyhlídal. Czech poets use different meters for sonnets. Kollár and Mácha used decasyllables, Vrchlický used iambic pentameter, Antonín Sova used free verse, and Jiří Orten used the Czech alexandrine. Ondřej Hanus, a poet known for his sonnets, wrote a detailed book about Czech sonnets in the early 20th century.

The sonnet was introduced into Polish literature in the 16th century by Jan Kochanowski, Mikołaj Sęp-Szarzyński, and Sebastian Grabowiecki. In 1826, Adam Mickiewicz, Poland’s national poet, wrote a sonnet series called the Crimean Sonnets after being exiled to the Crimean Peninsula by the Tsar. This series focuses on the culture and Islamic religion of the Crimean Tatars. The series was translated into English by Edna Worthley Underwood.

In the 18th century, after the westernizing reforms of Peter the Great, Russian poets like Alexander Sumarokov and Mikhail Kheraskov began writing sonnets. However, the sonnet was soon replaced in popularity by the more flexible Onegin stanza. This form, used by Alexander Pushkin in his novel Eugene Onegin, is sometimes called the "Onegin sonnet" because it has fourteen lines. It differs from the sonnet in its rhyme pattern and the number of beats per line, making it more similar in spirit than in structure. Later poets, including Mikhail Lermontov, adapted this form for their works.

In Slovenia, the sonnet became a national poetic form, using iambic pentameter with feminine rhymes, influenced by both Italian and German poetic traditions. The greatest Slovenian poet, France Prešeren, wrote several sonnet sequences starting in 1831. He is especially known for his Sonetni venec (A Wreath of Sonnets), a collection of sonnets arranged in a circular pattern. Many later poets followed his example. After World War II, Slovenian poets wrote both traditional rhymed sonnets and modern, unrhymed sonnets in free verse. Poets such as Milan Jesih and Aleš Debeljak used these forms.

Celtic languages

Although sonnets were written in English by Irish poets such as Sir Aubrey de Vere, Oscar Wilde, William Butler Yeats, Tom Kettle, and Patrick Kavanagh, the sonnet form was not used in Irish poetry written in the Irish language. This changed during the Gaelic revival when Liam Gógan, a Dublin-born poet, was removed from his position at the National Museum of Ireland and imprisoned at Frongoch internment camp after the Easter Rising. While there, he became the first person to write sonnets in the Irish language.

In 2009, poet Muiris Sionóid translated all 154 of William Shakespeare’s sonnets into Irish. The translation was titled Rotha Mór an Ghrá (“The Great Wheel of Love” in English). In an article about his work, Sionóid explained that Irish poetic forms are very different from those in other languages. He noted that both the sonnet structure and the iambic pentameter rhythm were long considered “not suitable” for writing poetry in Irish. In his translations, Sionóid kept Shakespeare’s rhyme patterns and rhythms while using the Irish language.

• See Welsh poetry

According to Jan Morris, “When Welsh poets speak of Free Verse, they mean forms like the sonnet or the ode, which follow the same rules as English poetry. Strict Metres verse still follows the complex rules from 600 years ago.” However, some of the most important recent Welsh poets have also written sonnets. These include Saunders Lewis, a Welsh nationalist and Traditionalist Catholic poet, and Thomas Evan Nicholas, a far-left poet.

Indian languages

Sonnets have been written in many languages across the Indian subcontinent, including Assamese, Bengali, Dogri, English, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Sindhi, and Urdu.

Urdu poets, who were influenced by English and other European poets, began using the sonnet form in Urdu poetry later than in other traditions. Azmatullah Khan (1887–1923) is credited with introducing the sonnet to Urdu literature in the early 20th century. Other well-known Urdu poets who wrote sonnets include Akhtar Junagarhi, Akhtar Sheerani, Noon Meem Rashid, Mehr Lal Soni, Zia Fatehabadi, Salaam Machhalishahari, and Wazir Agha.