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THE SONNET

We come now to a small poem in the heroic measure, which is little more than a stanza, the sonnet. Johnson's opinion, that it is not very suitable to the English language, has not been ratified by posterity; nor has his illnatured remark on Milton's sonnets, that " of the best of them it can only be said that they are not bad." Almost all the most eminent English poets have more or less cultivated the sonnet since it was first introduced into the language by Surrey and Wyatt, and it has of late years become a general favourite. Leigh Hunt and S. Adams Lee published in 1867 a history of the sonnet, followed by a numerous collection of specimens of the poem taken from English and American poets. The student might consult this work with profit and pleasure (1).

If Surrey imitated the Italian sonnet as written by Petrarch, he imitated it in nothing but the number of the lines, fourteen, and in that respect, as in some others, Catullus's little poem on Sirmio is equally entitled to be called a sonnet.

(1) The Book of the Sonnet, edited by Leigh Hunt and S. Adams Lee. 2 vols. London, Samson Low, son and Marston, 1867.

ON THE STRUCTURE OF ENGLISH VERSE

Pæninsularum, Sirmio, insularumque
Ocelle, quascumque in liquentibus stagnis
Marique vasto fert uterque Neptunus,
Quam te libenter quamque lætus inviso,
Vix mi ipse credens Thyniam atque Bithynos
Liquisse campos, et videre te in tuto!

O quid solutis est beatius curis,
Cum mens onus reponit, ac peregrino
Labore fessi venimus larem ad nostrum,
Desideratoque acquiescimus lecto?

Hoc est quod unum est pro laboribus tantis.
Salve, o venusta Sirmio, atque hero gaude;
Gaudete vosque o Lydia lacus undæ;
Ridete quicquid est domi cachinnorum.

Sirmio, of all peninsulas to me

The gem, and of all isles, where'er they lie
On lakes and seas in either Neptune's eye,
What joy is mine to look again on thee,
Scarce deeming that in blest reality,
Returned from Thynia and Bithynia, I
View thee safely at last, and can defy

All troubles, with unburthened mind and free!

To be at home in pure heartfelt delight,

To lie in the soft bed wished-for so long:

To the travel-sore there 's nothing half so sweet.

Hail, lovely Sirmio! thy glad master greet;
Rejoice, thou lake of Lydian waters bright;

Laugh loud, all raptures that to home belong!

109

The classical Italian sonnet of Petrarch is composed of two quatrains forming an octave having only two rhymes, followed by two tercets forming a sestette having two, or three rhymes.

with very few exceptions, when the rhymes are crossed,

On dit.

. qu'un jour ce dieu bizarre,

Voulant pousser à bout tous les rimeurs françois,
Inventa du sonnet les rigoureuses lois,

Voulut qu'en deux quatrains de mesure pareille
La rime avec deux sons frappât huit fois l'oreille;
Et qu'ensuite six vers artistement rangés
Fussent en deux tercets par le sens partagés.

These "rigoureuses lois" leave the poet entire liberty as to the interweaving of his rhymes. The form of the sonnet most frequently adopted by French poets is, however, the following, which French prosodists declare to be the regular, legitimate sonnet (1).

Beaux et grands bâtiments d'éternelle structure,
Superbes de matière, et d'ouvrages divers,

(1) Le livre des Sonnets. Paris, Lemerre, 1875.

Où le plus digne Roi qui soit en l'univers
Aux miracles de l'art fait céder la nature.

Beau parc, et beaux jardins, qui dans votre clôture
Avez toujours des fleurs, et des ombrages verts,
Non sans quelque démon qui défend aux hivers
D'en effacer jamais l'agréable peinture :

Lieux qui donnez aux cœurs tant d'aimables désirs,
Bois, fontaines, canaux, si parmi vos plaisirs
Mon humeur est chagrine, et mon visage triste,

Ce n'est point qu'en effet vous n'ayez des appas;
Mais quoi que vous ayez, vous n'avez point Caliste,
Et moi je ne vois rien quand je ne la vois pas.

François DE MALHERBE.

English poets have hardly ever used this form. Wordsworth has adopted it in very rare instances, one of which is the following.

Oxford, may 30, 1820.

Ye sacred nurseries of blooming youth!
In whose collegiate shelter England's flowers
Expand, enjoying through their vernal hours
The air of liberty, the light of truth;

Much have ye suffered from time's gnawing tooth :
Yet, O ye spires of Oxford! domes and towers!
Gardens and groves! your presence overpowers
The soberness of reason; till, in sooth,
Transformed, and rushing on a bold exchange,
I slight my own beloved Cam, to range
Where silver Isis leads my stripling feet;
Pace the long avenue, or glide adown

The stream-like windings of that glorious street,
An eager novice robed in fluttering gown!

Wyatt, whose Songes and Sonnettes' were published with Surrey's poems by Tottel in his editions of 1557 and 1565, imitated the Italian sonnet more closely than

Surrey. Here is one of Wyatt, a translation from Petrarch, which the reader may compare with the original.

If amourous fayth, or if an hart unfained
A swete languor, a great lovely desire.
If honest will, kindled in gentle fire:
If long errour in a blinde mase chained,
If in my visage ech thought distayned,

Or if my sparkelyng voyce, lower, or hier,
Which fear and shame so wofully doth tyre:
If pale colour, which love alas hath stayned:
If to have another then my self more dere,
If wailyng or sighyng continually,
With sorofull anger fedyng busily,

If burnyng a farre of, and fresyng nere,
Are cause that by love my selfe I stroy:
Yours is the fault, and mine the great annoy.

The sestette is irregular in this sonnet. In the legitimate Italian sonnet the two last lines do not rhyme together.

S'una fede amorosa, un cor non finto,
Un languir dolce, un desiar cortese;
S'oneste voglie in gentil foco accese;
S'un lungo error' in cieco laberinto;
Se nella fronte ogni pensier dipinto,

Od in voci interrotte appena intese,
Or da paura, or da vergogna offese;
S'un pallor di viola, e d'amor tinto;
S'aver altrui più caro, che sè stesso;

Se lagrimar, e sospirar mai sempre;
Pascendosi di duol, d'ira, e d'affanno;
S'arder da lunge, ed agghiacciar da presso;
Son le cagion ch' amando i' mi distempre,
Vostro, Donna, 'l peccato, e mio fia 'l danno.

PETRARCA.

The first in the order of Surrey's sonnets has only two