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Andrew Benson Brown‘s epic-in-progress, Legends of Liberty, chronicles the major events of the American Revolution. He writes history articles for American Essence magazine and resides in Missouri. Watch his Classical Poets Live videos here.

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11 Responses

  1. James Sale

    Always love your videos – and your poetry – Andrew, and this is no exception: packed full of interesting matter for poets everywhere!

    Reply
    • ABB

      Thanks James. Realized I left out a few things. For the YT thumbnail I was trying to get the AI to do Petrarch, but it kept making this generic Elizabethan guy at the bottom left.

      Reply
  2. Paul Freeman

    Excellent stuff. Reminds me I’m in a bit of a Shakespearean Sonnet rut and need to try some variation.

    Reply
    • ABB

      Thanks Paul. Hope I could inspire you. Which is not to say I think you’re actually in a rut, you’re doing great work.

      Reply
  3. Joseph S. Salemi

    What a great introduction to the sonnet! It touches all the major points, and gives excellent examples.

    I’m glad ABB brought up the fact that there are countless variations of the sonnet when it comes to rhyme placement, and even in length (Meredith’s 16-line sonnets from his sequence “Modern Love” is a notable instance, but sonnets longer than 14 lines were also composed in Renaissance Italy).

    There was a craze for “sonnet sequences” in England the 1590s and thereabouts. Shakespeare’s collection is the most famous, but many English poets produced them.

    Reply
    • ABB

      I think a few of the modern examples, like Hopkins, do stretch the form a bit much to the point where I wouldn’t have recognized it as such if I hadn’t read about it. Should’ve mentioned Berni as credited with the invention of the caudate sonnet more than 400 years before Hopkins. A lot gets left out in 12 minutes, but according to my stats people are more likely to click on the shorter tutorials.

      Reply
  5. Mike Bryant

    Mannn, ABB, your videos get better and better. What a great resource you and SCP are for poets everywhere.

    Reply
  7. Margaret Coats

    Good work, Andrew! The compact presentation of sonnet history is admirable–and much briefer than I manage to do. I would, however, suggest you do a remake (after a good long breathing spell), and maybe move sonnet variations to a separate tutorial, while leaving the five (not three) major kinds of sonnet as part of the history. That way you might be able to cover the history of 800 years in 8 minutes after all. And you might get in some improvements.

    (1) You’ve underplayed Petrarch here. He created the most important among all Western lyric sequences–and thus led to many more sequences, and to the very concept of a sonnet sequence. You discuss the corona at length, but that is really a complex subset of the more important sequence–which can range from a simple pair to a collection hundreds of poems long. Dante’s Vita Nuova sonnets were framed in prose, but Petrarch (using mostly sonnets along with a few other lyric kinds) took the sonnet sequence into the non-narrative story realm where thousands of poets have followed. He is also highly significant for combining spiritual and amatory elements, making him the godfather of sequences religious or secular and both. His style is still influential worldwide (if I may trust younger scholars whose research in South America and Asia exceeds my capacity). And worldwide, the Petrarchan form of sonnet is by far the most often used.

    (2) It would be good to spend a few more seconds on major areas of sonnet expansion that are not English speaking. In particular, mention the Spanish Golden Age and the Germans later on, Rilke in particular. No need to quote, but the history is woefully lacking without a mention of the most significant places with at least one named sonneteer. Most important are the French (Ronsard and the Pleiade) and their specific form, which is huge within the 800 years covered, though rarely used by writers in English.

    (3) The French form is a variant on the Italian (Petrarchan). Rhyme scheme most often is abba abba cc deed, with a rhymed couplet at lines 9-10. This is NOT one of the sestet variations ever used by Petrarch. It almost forces the volta to be an explicit statement at the usual place, but then allows for a denouement or reflection quatrain to follow. French sonnets often go to an Alexandrine (hexameter) line, but that cannot be part of the definition, as many remain decasyllabic.

    (4) The other major form you missed is the couplet sonnet (aabbccddeeffgg). No one needed to invent this. I’ve not seen any in other languages, but in English it appears during the 16th century and has kept appearing ever since. It would be easy to make a book of this kind alone. Shakespeare 126 is an example. A fair number of these continue to show up at SCP. In this kind, the recognition of the quatorzain as a sonnet depends on the volta.

    (5) You can leave the terza rima sonnet for the tutorial on sonnet variations. No way that form can approach the number of couplet sonnets, despite Shelley’s fame. Terza rima is simply one of the innumerable available sonnet variations. If you know of a second good example, please tell me!

    (6) You could mention terza rima sonnets as part of the vast amount of experimentation during the 19th century. This included other triplet sonnets. The Victorian explosion or avalanche of sonnets on every subject is worth mentioning. A couple of years ago I looked through the Anthem Anthology of Victorian Sonnets–five THICK volumes that did not include American or Canadian authors. LOTS of political stuff, from a detailed sequence on the Indian Mutiny, to warnings about Turks in Armenia–predating that genocide by decades.

    (7) Two big name issues. You pronounce “Donne” as /don/, but the correct pronunciation is /dun/. And that fellow Henry Howard who invented the Shakespearean sonnet form and wrote nine examples of it–he is rightly called Surrey from his title as Earl of Surrey. First authors of the English sonnet are the twosome Wyatt and Surrey.

    (8) Shifting new sonnet variations (and their uncertain future) to another short and hopefully popular tutorial will make room in the history one for substantial sonneteers among our contemporaries. You do mention James Tweedie, and there is Theresa Rodriguez Werba and Phillip Whidden. Above all, though, stands Joseph Charles MacKenzie, with two superb sonnet sequences each published in book form. In the first, he restores the Petrarchan practice of combining amatory and spiritual elements, celebrating his marriage while serving Christ the King.

    Andrew, please take this as admiring and constructive criticism. I know how much work it took to make the video, which is why I don’t make any! Lots of research, with brain-befuddling effort to condense and present it, and technology with its challenges added.

    I also appreciate the notes of my own work that you added. I may have been the first to call the Spenserian sonnet form “Scottish,” and I saw my name on screen as author of the summary of haiku requirements. By the way, David Marshall, your fellow inventor of the “sonku,” if he is familiar with other Japanese poetry, probably prefers the 7-7 conclusion because 5-7-5-7-7 is itself one of the classic and most often used Japanese forms. Concluding with a 5-7 couplet has the advantage of symmetry, but is less weighty as a trade-off. Good to have two options, just as the sonnet itself has so many.

    Best of luck with all your creative and tutorial work!

    Reply
  8. Phillip Whidden

    Andrew Benson Brown, congratulations on this outline of the history of the sonnet. I’m full of admiration of it and of you for having created it. I am also full of admiration of Margaret Cross (see above) for her advice about how to include further material in your outline (and send part of your existing video material over into another tutorial). No, I am not implying that you should or must follow her advice. I am instead noting my appreciation of it. You of course must be the one to make further decisions in all this. It was kind of Margaret Cross even to mention me in her remarks. She likes a particular sonneteer because he combines romantic love with spiritual love, just as Dante combined romantic love with spiritual love. I in my smaller way often do the same but very, very few people have read such sonnets by me. I tend to send out sonnets that are on other topics. Wait. I don’t want this message to be about my sonnets. They speak for themselves. I want to double down instead on my praise for your video history of sonnetry. YES.

    Reply

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