A Survey of the Sonnet and Its Many Forms
Petrarchan, Shakespearean, Caudate, and Curtal Sonnets
Oct 17, 2009
The sonnet is one of the oldest traditional poetic forms. It first gained popularity by the prolific pen of Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) during the Italian Renaissance. Two centuries later, the court poets of the English Renaissance--of significant note, William Shakespeare--adopted the sonnet and gave it new life. Another century later, John Milton popularized the satirical modality of the caudate sonnet. In the late 19th century, Gerard Manly Hopkins invented the curtal sonnet. Writers today, including Billy Collins and Natasha Trethewey, still use the sonnet form to explore concepts of love, language, limitation, musicality, and movement.
The Sonnet at a Glance
Sonnets are easily identified just by looking at them on the page. The rules of the form give the sonnet a distinct box-like shape--it is fourteen lines long, and each line has ten syllables. In addition to this, the sonnet has a distinct sound, as it is traditionally composed in iambic pentameter. This means each line is made up of five iambs, giving it the rhythm "duh-DUM duh-DUM duh-DUM duh-DUM duh-DUM." These rules create certain expectations on the reader's part, and the writer, depending on what she wants her poem to do, can meet or deny these expectations for effect.
The Italian (Petrarchan) Sonnet
The fourteen lines of the Petrarchan sonnet move as an octave and a sestet, hinged at the ninth line with a major turn (or volta). This means the first eight lines (the octave) set up or describe a certain circumstance, while the final six lines (the sestet) veer away from the octave's course, whether in tone, diction, syntax, etc. The Petrarchan sonnet also displays a characteristic rhyme scheme: ABBA ABBA CDECDE, or ABBA ABBA CDCDCD. Since Petrarch wrote many sonnets in pining for Laura, the woman he desperately loved but could not have, the idea of unrequited or unattainable love (and likewise, the tropes used to describe it: eyes as darts, woman as doe, etc.) is also a characteristic trait of the Italian sonnet.
The English (Shakespearean) Sonnet
Unlike the Petrarchan, the Shakespearean sonnet most often moves as three quatrains (four lines apiece) and a couplet (two lines), hinged at the thirteenth line with the turn. Shakespeare himself most often utilized the rhyme scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF GG, which creates rolling motion through the quatrains to the suddenly different, punch-line-like couplet. Metaphysical poet John Donne, however, preferred the rhyme scheme ABBA ABBA CDCD EE, which creates a ghost turn at the ninth line with the change in rhyme, anticipating the major turn at line thirteen. This sonnet form, too, is associated with love poetry, but it is also associated with religious and political themes.
The Caudate Sonnet
This could also be called an extended sonnet. The caudate is a standard fourteen-line sonnet with the addition of a coda, or tail, of six lines. This is used most frequently for satirical works, perhaps because of John Milton's masterful use of the form in his "On the New Forcers of Conscience Under the Long Parliament." The tail can adopt any variation of the previous rhyme scheme, but traditionally is ABB ABB.
The Curtal Sonnet
This form was invented by Gerard Manley Hopkins in the 19th century. It takes the traditional sonnet and, instead of extending it, minimizes it. The curtal sonnet is ten-and-a-half lines long -- a seemingly arbitrary number, but it actually maintains the exact proportions of the Petrarchan sonnet. Thus minimizing the space in which to work, the poet must choose careful, powerful language to enliven the small box of the curtal sonnet.
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