19 pages • 38 minutes read
Sonnet 1
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Background
Literary Context: The Sonnet Tradition
Sidney’s “Sonnet 1” plays with the conventions of the sonnet form. The word “sonnet” comes from the Italian sonetto, or “little song,” and scholars argue that it was invented by Giacomo de Lentini. Italian poets, like Teofilo Folengo, used the sonnet form to flatter upper-class women. However, Francesco Petrarch was the poet who popularized the Italian sonnet form in the mid-1300s. His form includes 14 rhymed lines broken into a group of eight lines (octave) and a group of six lines (sestet) with a turn, or volta, in between. Petrarch’s work was translated into English by poets such as Thomas Wyatt in Tottel’s Miscellany, which was published in 1557.
Sidney’s sonnet collection was published before other famous English sonnet sequences, such as Edmund Spenser’s Amoretti, which was published in 1595, and William Shakespeare’s sonnets, which were published in 1609. Sidney is often credited with the sonnet’s revival in English after it had fallen out of fashion in Italy. Sonnets in English also include 14 lines, but the rhyme scheme and structure differ from the Italian version. Sidney’s divergences from the classic form of the sonnet, such as using a different Unlock all 19 pages of this Study Guide Plus, gain access to 8,900+ more expert-written Study Guides. Including features:
