SONNETS

During the Renaissance period, the 14th to the 17th century, the sonnet became a popular form of literature. Several versions exist but, in general, it is a poem of 14 lines in iambic pentameter. The famous English language sonneters were Shakespeare and Milton and later, Keats and Shelley. Sonnets were historically love songs (the word sonnet was derived from the Italian word for little song).



When I was a in high school I was intrigued by sonnets. I committed three or four of Shakespeare's 154 sonnets to memory. When I was dating my wife, I used to recite them to her. (It worked!) I also made my children suffer through them a time or two. Here is one of my favorites. Compared to some of the others, it is easy to read and understand.





When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes,

I all alone beweep my outcast state
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possess'd,
Desiring this man's art and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;

For thy sweet love remember'd such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.