The Sonnet Tradition
Although the sonnet as a poetic form evolved in thirteenth and fourteenth century Italy with poets like Petrarch, it became most famous as the dominant poetic tradition in sixteenth century Renaissance England. Poets like Sidney, Spenser and Shakespeare wrote well-crafted sonnets. But their sonnets were not just separate poems written here and there. They wrote their sonnets in cycles, a lifetime of sonnets combining to form a long narrative. Sonnet cycles were very long: Sidney’s has more than 100 sonnets. Shakespeare’s is 147 sonnets long.
The sonnet is a very crafted, and difficult structure. Generally, sonnets are all fourteen lines long, each line in imabic pentameter, and each poet using a particular rhyme scheme that remains consistant through the whole sonnet cycle. The ability to write so many excellent sonnets within such a strenuous structure made the sonnet cycle one of the major Renaissance triumphs. They were seen and admired with the same awe and respect as a symphony, or a cathedral. And it was even more admired in England as an example of their greatness, fostering cultural pride that begins to grow during this time when England is trying to edge forward as a super-power in the world.