Features
of
Elizabethan
Sonnets
BACKGROUND:
Elizabethan Age (1558-1603) the most
flowering period in the history of English literature has been hailed as “the nest of singing birds”. English poetry flourished
with all its forms and colors in the hands of a host of
poets. Sonnet was one of the most popular forms of poetry during this age.
MAJOR SONNETEERS:
Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard
borrowed the art of writing sonnets (an octave and a sestet) from Petrarch, an
Italian poet. Shakespeare changed this Italian form and started writing sonnets
in three quatrains and a couplet. Spenser and Sidney also earned much
popularity as sonneteers. Henry Constable, Daniel, Michael Drayton and others
too contributed in developing this Elizabethan sonnet.
FEATURES:
|
1 |
Sequences instead of single sonnets were produced.
Twelve collections of sonnet sequences were published from 1593 to 1596. |
|
2 |
All sonnets were addressed to an actual lady of love
or to a lady of imagination. |
|
3 |
Petrarchan sonnets were rarely written after Sidney.
Most poets followed Shakespearean style. |
|
4 |
French sonneteers (Ronsard, Desportes, Du Bellay)
were the models of the Elizabethan poets. |
|
5 |
Mostly love the central motive of all Elizabethan
sonnets. |
|
6 |
Elizabethan sonnets are marked by flights of imagination.
They achieved true poetic heights. |
|
7 |
Elizabethan sonneteers were the masters of the art
of versification. Their sonnets were highly melodious and musical. |
No comments:
Post a Comment