LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 19:12 December 2019
ISSN 1930-2940

Editors:
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         T. Deivasigamani, Ph.D.
         Pammi Pavan Kumar, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.

Managing Editor & Publisher: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.

HOME PAGE

Click Here for Back Issues of Language in India - From 2001

BOOKS FOR YOU TO READ AND DOWNLOAD FREE!

REFERENCE MATERIALS

BACK ISSUES

  • E-mail your articles and book-length reports in Microsoft Word to languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.

  • PLEASE READ THE GUIDELINES GIVEN IN HOME PAGE IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE LIST OF CONTENTS.

  • Your articles and book-length reports should be written following the APA, MLA, LSA, or IJDL Stylesheet.

  • The Editorial Board has the right to accept, reject, or suggest modifications to the articles submitted for publication, and to make suitable stylistic adjustments. High quality, academic integrity, ethics and morals are expected from the authors and discussants.

Copyright © 2016
M. S. Thirumalai

Publisher: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
11249 Oregon Circle
Bloomington, MN 55438
USA
Custom Search

Shakespeare’s Sonnets: A Critical Study

Appalal Abdulgaffar Attar (Ph.D.)

Abstract

William Shakespeare needs no introduction to the scholars of English generally, and poetry especially. As a sonnet writer, he penned 154 sonnets which became extremely popular among the readers of all the ages throughout the world His sonnets are measured a continuation of the sonnet tradition that swept through the Renaissance from Petrarch in 14th-century Italy and was finally introduced in 16th-century England by Thomas Wyatt and was given its rhyming meter and division into quatrains by Henry Howard. With few exceptions, Shakespeare’s sonnets observe the stylistic sort of English sonnet—the rhyme scheme, the 14 lines, and therefore the meter. But Shakespeare’s sonnets introduce such significant departures of content that they appear to be rebelling against well-worn 200-year-old traditions.[2] Instead of expressing worshipful love for an almost goddess-like yet unobtainable female love-object, as Petrarch, Dante, and Philip Sidney had done, Shakespeare introduces a young man. He also introduces the Dark Lady, who is not any goddess. Shakespeare explores themes like lust, homoeroticism, misogyny, infidelity, and acrimony in ways in which may challenge, but which also open new terrain for the sonnet form. Shakespeare's Sonnets are some of the most fascinating and influential poems written in English.

Keywords: Shakespearean sonnets, Italian model, Theme of love, compensation and separation, Wyatt and Surrey’s style, Youth-hood.

English poetry is modeled upon Italian poetry. The Italian poets Petrarch, Dante, Tasso, Ariosto, Michelangelo and Colonna cultivated fine poetry. Petrarchian style of poetry, particularly the sonnet in 14 lines with Octave (rhyming abba abba) and a sestet (with several rhyme schemes) came into vogue. Octave provided the subject and sestet provided the resolution. Petrarchan sonnet had a turn (volte) at the end of octave. The English sonneteers did not follow it, and they adopted varied rhyme schemes in sestet. Petrarchan sonnets spoke of love and chivalry. The Italian, French and English sonneteers used the sonnet as if a literary exercise.

The English poet Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503-1542) introduced the Italian sonnet form in England. Henry Howard, Earl of Survey (1517-1547) broadened the scope of the English sonnet.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Appalal Abdulgaffar Attar (Ph.D.)
Lecturer
College of Sciences and Arts, Almethnab
Qassim University, Saudi Arabia
appalal1100@gmail.com
Custom Search
  • Click Here to Go to Creative Writing Section

  • Send your articles
    as an attachment
    to your e-mail to
    languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.
  • Please ensure that your name, academic degrees, institutional affiliation and institutional address, and your e-mail address are all given in the first page of your article. Also include a declaration that your article or work submitted for publication in LANGUAGE IN INDIA is an original work by you and that you have duly acknowledged the work or works of others you used in writing your articles, etc. Remember that by maintaining academic integrity we not only do the right thing but also help the growth, development and recognition of Indian/South Asian scholarship.