The sonnet is one of the most recognizable of poetic forms. Surrey is credited with creating the now Standard English form of the sonnet (see below), although that form is more closely associated with Shakespeare, who perfected it. In the mid-1500s Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (usually referred to simply as “Surrey”) and Thomas Campion translated Petrarch into English for the first time. Petrarch established the themes (see below) and dominated the practice of the Italian sonnet.Īlthough it’s very likely the English poet Chaucer encountered the form in the late 1300s, it took approximately 200 years for the sonnet form to make its way from Italy to England. It is not however Lentino but Francesco Petrarca, known as Petrarch, who is most closely associated with the early form of the sonnet.

In the ending couplet, there’s a turn (or volta see below ), continuing in the cat’s voice and perspective, in which the cat pronounces, essentially, that humans are inferior to felines and fit only to serve them.Ĭredit for the invention of the form is given to the Italian poet Giacomo de Lentino in the 14 th century. We do this to show how the poet embraces some of the conventions of the traditional sonnet (see below) while blowing some of the conventions out of the water to make the poem uniquely her own. We scan the first line as: “my BOWL of LAMB and GRA-vy FROM the CAN”-a line of iambic pentameter. The poem is a one-stanza 14-line sonnet with a rhyme scheme of- abba abba cdcd ee (see below). We love how the cat is the speaker in the poem, and from a superior position, addresses and critiques humans for their slothful forgetfulness.

With wit and in the voice of an angry cat (because the poet slept too late), Jones brings together God and cats in the sonnet form. Donne’s “Holy Sonnets” is one of his most dramatic devotional lyrics. Donne wrote 19 “Holy Sonnets” in direct address to God, and he employed violent and sexual imagery.

Poet, Mollycat Jones (Christine Potter), in her title is riffing off of metaphysical poet, John Donne’s “Holy Sonnets or Divine Meditations” originally published in the first edition of his Songs and Sonnets (1633).

Amongst contemporary poets, the sonnet is alive and well! Before we get into specifics about the history, traditions and forms of the sonnet, let’s look at a contemporary example & think about the various ways poets continue to work in the form, as well as break with it’s traditions and “rules.” Here is a link to Mollycat Jones’ “Unholy Sonnet Number One.” Follow this link: “Unholy Sonnet Number One” by Mollycat Jones

Shakespeare sonnet structure