Meta: intro to sonnet week

[lnhammer]

I'm lnhammer, and I'll be hosting a week on sonnets.

You can find as almost many definitions of a sonnet as you can prosodists: fourteen lines, rhyming, yadda yadda. "Rhyming," yes, but exactly how is not important. In fact, historically a particular rhyme scheme has never been a defining characteristic of sonnets -- the now-standard abbaabba octave of the various Italian schemata wasn't introduced until a generation after the form was invented in the early 13th century (using abababab).

The closest thing to a definitive marker is 14 lines containing an asymmetric two-part structure with a "turn" of thought, volta in Italian, slightly more than halfway through, most orthodoxly giving it a 8+6 structure (as emphasized by Italian rhyme schemes) but sometimes moved a line or two in either direction. But even that definition can be carped at, given that Elizabethan rhyme schemes with their final couplet often suggest using a 12+2 argument.

But enough of that. This week I'd like to explore some other aspects of sonnets -- starting with my next post later today.

Until then, though, a question: how do YOU define a sonnet?

---L.

Comments

Hmm...

[ysabetwordsmith]

14 lines of iambic pentameter that rhyme.

Hmm as well

[lnhammer]

Brief and to the point. I'd quibble with only two parts of it: I don't think pentameter is strictly needed, though it is the default in English, and I'd like to exclude poems that are seven couplets -- there needs to be some sort of interlocking. I cannot put my finger on exactly why I want to make that last caveat -- will need to think on this anon. As for the former, see today's post.

---L.

Re: Hmm as well

[ysabetwordsmith]

Well, that's a different form: heroic couplets are written in iambic pentameter.

Re: Hmm as well

[lnhammer]

Exactly. I was just pointing out that your definition didn't preclude someone writing seven heroic couplets and calling it a sonnet.

---L.