A sonnet is a specific type of poem that has 14 lines and follows a specific rhyme pattern. The word "sonnet" comes from the Italian word "sonetto," which means "little song" (from the Latin word "sonus," meaning "sound"). The sonnet began in Sicily during the 13th century and was later used in many European countries. At first, it was mainly used to write about romantic love, but eventually, any topic became acceptable. Over time, different versions of the sonnet were created, including some that did not follow the 14-line rule and even some that did not use rhyme at all.
Romance languages
Giacomo da Lentini is given credit for creating the sonnet at the court of Frederick II in Palermo, a city in Sicily. A group of Sicilian poets who worked with Lentini helped spread the sonnet to other areas. The earliest sonnets were written in Sicilian, but they no longer exist in that language. Instead, they were later translated into the Tuscan dialect. The sonnet had a specific structure: two groups of four-line sections (quatrains) followed by two groups of three-line sections (tercets). The rhyme pattern was A B A B A B A B C D C D C D. After the middle of the poem, the meaning changed direction.
Peter Dronke noted that the sonnet's flexible structure helped it last for a long time beyond its place of origin. William Baer pointed out that the first eight lines of early Sicilian sonnets matched a traditional Sicilian song called the Strambotto. To create the 14-line sonnet, da Lentini (or whoever invented it) added two tercets to the Strambotto.
Hassanally Ladha argued that the Sicilian sonnet was influenced by Arabic poetry and was not a new creation by the Sicilian poets. He said that the sonnet showed connections to the Arabic form called the qasida. He also noted that the sonnet did not first appear with its 14-line structure. Instead, some early poems had only six lines, with four rows of two parts each and two "tercets" that spanned two rows. Ladha believed the sonnet was part of a larger tradition of love poetry in the Mediterranean, including forms like the Sicilian Strambotto, the Provençal Canso, the Andalusi Arabic Muwashshah and Zajal, and the qasida.
Guittone d'Arezzo rediscovered the sonnet and brought it to Tuscany. He adapted it to the Tuscan dialect and started the Siculo-Tuscan or Guittonian school of poetry (1235–1294). He wrote nearly 250 sonnets. Later, many Italian poets used the form, including Dante Alighieri and Guido Cavalcanti. However, Petrarch became the most famous and influential poet of the sonnet.
The typical Italian sonnet had two parts that together formed a complete idea. The first part, called the octave, presented a "problem" or "question." The second part, the sestet (two tercets), offered a "resolution." The ninth line, called the "turn" or "volta," marked a change in the poem’s direction, even if the structure was not strictly followed.
Over time, the rhyme pattern for the octave became A B B A A B B A. For the sestet, two common patterns were C D E C D E and C D C C D C. Other variations later appeared, 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 of sonnets about the months of the year and the days of the week. Earlier, Dante had published La Vita Nuova, a book that included sonnets and other poems about his love for Beatrice. Most of the sonnets in this work followed the Petrarchan style. In Chapter VII, the sonnet "O voi che per la via" had two sestets with the rhyme pattern A A B A A B A A B A A B and two quatrains with C D D C C D D C. In Chapter VIII, the sonnet "Morte villana" had two sestets with A A B B B A A A B B B A and two quatrains with C D D C C D D C. Petrarch later wrote 366 sonnets in Canzoniere, which described his lifelong love for Laura.
Sonnet writing became very common in Italian society. Some famous people, like painters Giotto and Michelangelo, and the astronomer Galileo, also wrote sonnets. In the 16th century, the academician Giovanni Mario Crescimbeni listed 661 poets who wrote sonnets. Sonnets were so common that a literary historian said, "No event was too small for people to celebrate with a sonnet."
The only confirmed sonnet in the Occitan language 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 sonnets with similar themes were written by "William of Almarichi" and Dante de Maiano, though their authenticity is uncertain.
One of the earliest Catalan sonnets was written by Pere Torroella (1436–1486). In the 16th century, Pere Serafí wrote over 60 sonnets between 1560 and 1565.
The poet Íñigo López de Mendoza, 1st Marquis of Santillana, tried to write sonnets in the Italian style in the mid-15th century. However, the Spanish language and poetic rules were changing at the time, so his attempt failed. Later, in 1526, Juan Boscán reintroduced the sonnet after meeting Andrea Navagero, a Venetian ambassador. Navagero encouraged Boscán to write sonnets in Spanish.
Boscán worked with Garcilaso de la Vega, a talented poet. Their sonnets followed the Petrarchan model and used a new poetic rhythm called the hendecasyllable. They also wrote about love based on the neoplatonic ideal, which Boscán had translated in Il Cortegiano. Their work was later praised by Fernando de Herrera, who became known
Germanic languages
Sir Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, are often called "the first English Petrarchans" because they helped introduce the sonnet form to English poetry. Many of Wyatt's poems are based on works by Petrarch, either as translations or imitations, while some of Surrey's poems are also translations or imitations. In one case, both poets translated the same poem, Rime 140. Their styles differ: Wyatt's poems often use irregular rhythms with strong stress on certain phrases, and his sonnets are closer in structure to Petrarch's. Surrey, however, is better known for using iambic pentameter, a rhythm that became popular in the Elizabethan era. This rhythm is found in the Shakespearean sonnet form, which has three rhyming quatrains followed by a final couplet (ABAB, CDCD, EFEF, GG). This form was widely used in love poems, such as Sir Philip Sidney's Astrophel and Stella (1591), and about 4,000 sonnets were written during this time. However, many of these sonnets were seen as repetitive, leading some poets, like Sir John Davies and William Shakespeare, to criticize them.
Shakespeare's 154 sonnets differ from others because they address more than one person, including both men and women. Some of his sonnets were also used in his plays. Another poet, Edmund Spenser, used a different rhyme pattern in his Amoretti, which follows the pattern ABAB BCBC CDCD EE.
In the 1590s, the focus of sonnets shifted from love to religious themes. Barnabe Barnes began this change with his poem Divine Centurie of Spirituall Sonnets (1595), which starts with the line "No more lewde laies of lighter loues I sing." Other poets, such as Henry Lok, Henry Constable, and Nicholas Breton, also wrote religious sonnets. John Donne later wrote Holy Sonnets, which use complex ideas similar to those found in French and Italian religious poems.
John Milton's sonnets show another change in style. His early works were inspired by Petrarch, but his later sonnets address personal and political themes. Some of his sonnets use a unique Italian form called the "caudate sonnet."
The popularity of the sonnet declined after the Restoration in 1660 and remained low until the late 18th century. Thomas Warton revived the form, using Milton as a model. Other poets, like Charlotte Smith and William Lisle Bowles, also wrote sonnets, though some critics disliked their style.
In the 19th century, poets like William Wordsworth praised the sonnet for its ability to express many themes. He wrote over 500 sonnets, influencing many others. His use of the sonnet for new subjects, such as nature and religion, helped shape the style of the time. However, some critics worried about the overuse of sonnets, calling it a "new sickness."
During the Romantic period, poets also used sonnets to show how the form could be adapted. Wordsworth's sonnet "Nuns fret not at their narrow room" (1807) divides the poem into two equal parts after the seventh line. John Keats used frequent line breaks in his sonnet "If by dull rhymes our English must be chained" (1816), splitting the poem into four groups of three lines and a final couplet. These examples demonstrated the flexibility of the sonnet form.
Jewish languages
For thousands of years, Jewish communities around the world have created literature in their many languages. When it comes to the sonnet, two languages were mainly used—those spoken in Europe, where the sonnet was first developed, and later by Jewish people who moved to other parts of the world.
In Hebrew, the word for a sonnet is shir zahav, which means "golden song." The name also connects to numbers: the letters in zahav add up to 14, which is the number of lines in a sonnet.
The earliest Hebrew sonnets were likely written by a poet named 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 the Italian style. Most of these poems are about 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 another version came out in Constantinople in 1535. Around the same time, the sonnet became popular in other European languages. This trend continued into the Baroque period, with more than 80 poets writing sonnets in Hebrew. While many poems focused on religious themes, love poems were still written, especially by David Okineira of Salonika.
During the Baroque period, poets like Moses ben Mordecai Zacuto and Joseph de la Vega included sonnets in their plays, similar to how Shakespeare and Lope da Vega used them in their works. In the 18th century, the Hebrew sonnet was revived by poets like Samson Cohen Modon, Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, and Ephraim Luzzatto, who are considered founders of modern Hebrew literature.
In the 20th century, Shaul Tchernichovsky celebrated the sonnet’s long history in his book Maḥberet ha-Sonetot (1923). He wrote a sonnet honoring the form’s continuity since Immanuel’s time: "Thou art dear to me, how dear to me, Sonetot, O shir zahav." Tchernichovsky also introduced the "crown of sonnets" to Hebrew poetry.
Yiddish, a language spoken by Jewish communities in Eastern Europe, has had literature since the Middle Ages. However, the sonnet was not widely used in Yiddish poetry at first 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 sonnets were written by Dovid Kenigsberg and Fradl Shtok. Kenigsberg published Soneten (1913) and later Hundert Soneten (1921). Shtok began writing poetry in New York after moving there in 1910. Earlier Yiddish sonnets were written in the U.S. by Morris Vintshevski in the 1890s and by Leib Naidus in Vilnius starting in 1910.
Other Yiddish poets who wrote entire collections of sonnets include Gershon-Peysekh Vayland (published in Warsaw, 1938–1939), Yankev Gotlib (published in Kaunas, 1938), and Abraham Nahum Stencl, whose Londoner Sonetn were published in London in 1937.
In the U.S., N. B. Minkoff included a sonnet cycle in his book Lieder (1924), and Aron Glantz-Leyeles published a collection of poems in old styles, including "Autumn," a group of 15 rhymed sonnets. In 1932, Yoysef-Leyzer Kalushiner published a book of sonnets in New York. M. Freed, who wrote The Narcissi in Bukovina (1937), later published An Evening by the Prut in New York (1942). Other collections include Sonnets of Chaos (1957) by Yirmye Hesheles and Sonetn (1961) by Mani Leib, considered one of the greatest Yiddish poems.
Austridan Oystriak, who fled to Mexico in 1940, published Meksike, finf un draysik sonetn (1949) in Mexico City. Yiddish sonnets published in Israel were rare because Hebrew was the preferred language there. Samuel Jacob Taubes and Shlomo Roitman wrote sonnets in Europe before moving to Israel.
Slavic languages
The sonnet was introduced into Czech literature at the beginning of the 19th century. The first great Czech sonneteer was Ján Kollár, who wrote a cycle of sonnets named Slávy Dcera (The Daughter of Sláva / The Daughter of Fame). While Kollár was Slovak, he supported Pan-Slavism and wrote in Czech, as he believed Slovak should not be a separate language. Kollár's most famous work was planned as a large Slavic poem, similar in size to Dante's Divine Comedy. It includes The Prelude, written in quantitative hexameters, and sonnets. The number of poems grew in later editions, reaching 645. The greatest Czech romantic poet, Karel Hynek Mácha, also wrote many sonnets. In the second half of the 19th century, Jaroslav Vrchlický published Sonety samotáře (Sonnets of a Solitudinarian). Another poet who wrote many sonnets was Josef Svatopluk Machar, who published Čtyři knihy sonetů (The Four Books of Sonnets). In the 20th century, Vítězslav Nezval wrote a cycle of 100 sonnets titled 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 noted sonnet writer, wrote a book about Czech sonnets in the first half of the 20th century.
The sonnet was introduced into Polish literature in the 16th century by Jan Kochanowski, Mikołaj Sęp-Szarzyński, and Sebastian Grabowiecki.
In 1826, Poland's national poet, Adam Mickiewicz, wrote a sonnet sequence called Crimean Sonnets after the Tsar sent him into exile in the Crimean Peninsula. Mickiewicz's sonnet sequence focuses on the culture and Islamic religion of the Crimean Tatars. The sequence was translated into English by Edna Worthley Underwood.
In the 18th century, after the westernizing reforms of Peter the Great, Russian poets such as Alexander Sumarokov and Mikhail Kheraskov began to experiment with sonnets. However, the form was soon replaced in popularity by the more flexible Onegin stanza. This was used by Alexander Pushkin in his novel in verse Eugene Onegin and is sometimes called the "Onegin sonnet," as it has fourteen lines. It differs from the sonnet in rhyme scheme and the number of stresses per line and is better described as having only a family resemblance to the sonnet. The form was later adapted by poets such as Mikhail Lermontov in his narrative The Tambov Treasurer's Wife.
In Slovenia, the sonnet became a national verse form, using iambic pentameter with feminine rhymes, based on both the Italian endecasillabo and German iambic pentameter. The greatest Slovenian poet, France Prešeren, wrote several sonnet sequences starting in 1831. He is especially known for his crown of sonnets, Sonetni venec (A Wreath of Sonnets). Many later poets followed him in using the sonnet form. After World War II, Slovenian poets wrote both traditional rhymed sonnets and postmodern ones, which are unrhymed and use free verse. Among these writers are Milan Jesih and Aleš Debeljak.
Celtic languages
Although sonnets were written in English by Irish poets like 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 (1891–1979), born in Dublin, was fired from his job at the National Museum of Ireland and sent to Frongoch internment camp after the Easter Rising. There, he became the first poet to write sonnets in the Irish language.
In 2009, poet Muiris Sionóid published a full translation of William Shakespeare’s 154 sonnets into Irish, titled Rotha Mór an Ghrá ("The Great Wheel of Love"). In an article about his translations, 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 line had long been considered "not suitable at all" for writing poetry in Irish. In his translations, Sionóid tried to copy Shakespeare’s rhyme patterns and rhythms while using the Irish language.
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 for correct poetic writing that were set 600 years ago." However, several of the most important recent Welsh poets have also written sonnets, including Saunders Lewis, a Welsh nationalist and Traditionalist Catholic poet, and Thomas Evan Nicholas, a Far-left poet.
Indian languages
Sonnets have been written using the Assamese, Bengali, Dogri, English, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Sindhi, and Urdu languages in the Indian subcontinent.
Urdu poets, influenced by English and other European poets, began introducing the sonnet into Urdu poetry later than in other traditions. Azmatullah Khan (1887–1923) is thought to have introduced this format 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.