What is a sonnet?
There are some poems that feature fixed rules regarding the number of verses, the combination of rhymes and the organization of stanzas. Among them is the sonnet, a poem that has been found for a long time in various literatures and, of course, is also found in Portuguese literature and in Brazilian literature.
As for classification, they can be of two types: italian sonnet and english sonnet.
⇒ Italian sonnet
It is characterized by the presence of fourteen verses which, normally, have ten poetic syllables, that is, decasyllable or Alexandrian verses. These verses are organized into two blocks and two-thirds.
courts |
Four-verse stanza that is usually presented with alternating rhymes (abab) or opposite (abba). |
triplets |
Three-verse stanza. They can present the combination of rhymes following Dante's model in Divine Comedy, decasyllables in chained rhyme (tab-bdc-cdc…), in which the last triplet verse must rhyme with a final verse (xx-z), or they can make combinations of different rhymes (aab-ccb, abc-abc, etc..),or even being presented with no rhymes. |
See this example of the sonnet from Manuel Bandeira which presents the structure mentioned above (two blocks and two triplets):
italian sonnet
Freshness of the mermaids and the dew,
of the white feet of the little ones,
Morning voice singing by bells,
highest rose in highest branch:
Who will I avail myself of, if not me I'm worth
From you, who have the key to the destinations
What burned my dreams crystalline
Made of ashes that weep in the wind scatter?
I also saw you cry… too suffered
The pain of seeing them dry by road
The sources of hope… And no gave in!
Before, poor, naked and pierced,
You knew how to give to life, in which you died,
Everything — to life, which never gave you nothing!
Combination of triplet rhymes
When the sonnet has triplets that combine only two rhymes, they must follow the scheme cdc-dcd. See the example of Manuel Bandeira's triplets:
I also saw you cry… too sufferThis oneÇ
The pain of seeing them dry by estadaD
The sources of hope… And no cedThis one! Ç
Before, poor, naked and trespassada, D
You knew how to give to life, in which dieThis one, Ç
Everything — to life, which never gave you nothing! D
If the triplets have more than three rhymes, they must follow the combinations below:
a) ccd-eed
Example:
Love!
Florbela Spanca
I want to love, love hopelessly!
Love just for love: Here… beyond…
Plus This and That, the Other and everybody
Love! Love! And don't love anyone!
Remember? To forget? Indifferent!…
Fasten or loosen? And bad? Is well?
Who says you can love someone
For a lifetime it's because you lie!
There is a spring in every season.going: Ç
You have to sing it like that flowergoing, Ç
Because if God gave us a voice, it was to singair!D
And if one day I'll be dust, gray and nadaAND
May my night be a dawnada, AND
May I know how to lose... to find meair... D
b) cdc-ede
Example:
be a poet
Florbela Spanca
To be a poet is to be taller, is to be bigger
Than men! Bite like a kisser!
It's being a beggar and giving as whoever it is
King of the Kingdom of Here and Beyond Pain!
It's having a thousand wishes for splendor
And not even knowing what you want!
It's having a flaming star inside,
It's having condor claws and wings!
It's being hungry, it's thirsting for Infinvery!Ç
For helmet, the mornings of gold and cetim…D
It's condensing the world into a single gr.very!Ç
And it's loving you, so, loseloved… AND
It's being soul, and blood, and life in mimD
And say it by singing to all the gloved! AND
c) ced-cde
Example:
Seek Love new arts, new ingenuity,
to kill me, and new elusions;
that can't take my hopes off,
that will hardly take from me what I don't have.
See what hopes I keep!
See what dangerous security guards!
That I'm not afraid of contrasts or changes,
walking in the wild sea, lost the wood.
But, although there can be no disgbone Ç
where hope is lacking, there you hideWhere D
Love is an evil, which kills and is not seenê.AND
What days have my soul hadbone Ç
one I don't know what, that is born I don't know thewhere, D
come I don't know how, and it hurts I don't know whyê. AND
Luís de Camões
The Italian sonnet is organized within these fixed rules in its composition.
⇒ English sonnet
Like Italian, the English sonnet also has fourteen verses, but it differs in that it has three quatrains and one final couplet. The rhythmic combination is made according to two organizations:
abab bcbc cdcd ee:known as the Spenserian sonnet, initiated by Edmund Spenser.
abab bcbc cdcd efef gg: known as the Shakespearean sonnet or the English sonnet.
Example of a Shakespearean sonnet:
English Sonnet No. 1
Manuel Bandeira
When death closes my eyes durosTHE
– Hard from so many spans I sufferedments,B
What will your breasts think?uros THE
Of my pain of all moments?B
I see you now outside, and so distant:Ç
More than distant – exempt. And well foreseenI want,D
I already foresee the exact ins.tantÇ
Where else will it not be your desI want,D
That thou shalt not have it, but thy abandonnoo, AND
Your nudity! One day I'll go homenowF
Fall asleep in the last snoo. AND
One day you will cry… What does it matter? Chnow.F
So I'll feel a lot more p.rightG
From me happy, your heart incright.G
Currently, the most used form in the composition of sonnets is the English sonnet, due to the great popularity of its use made by Shakespeare, who produced 154 sonnets of the type.
Do you want to read more sonnets and study their characteristics directly in the poems? Start by reading Florbela Espanca, Belmiro Braga, Raimundo Correia, Manuel Bandeira and, of course, Shakespeare himself. Good reading! Good studies!
By Mariana Rigonatto
Graduated in Letters
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/o-que-e/portugues/o-que-e-soneto.htm