Sonnets

The word “sonnet” comes from the Italian word “sonnetto” or “sonata” meaning “a little song”. Sonnets are most commonly written about love and probably the first person to write a sonnet was the poet Petrach and he wrote it for his love, Laura. Sir Thomas Wyatt, who had studied these earlier sonnets from the fourteenth century written by Petrach, introduced sonnets to England in the early sixteenth century when he began writing them. By the end of the sixteenth century they were very popular. Sonnets were thought of as perfect to express one’s love. Once in England, the Earl of Surrey further developed sonnets and then Shakespeare adopted the sonnet form and used them in his many plays. Sonnets were not popular in the eighteenth century but they were then reintroduced in the nineteenth century and were still used in the twentieth century, but with an altered tone and content.

There are two main types of sonnet: the Petrachan and the Shakespearean. The Petrachan sonnets follow the original sonnets and are named after the Italian Petrach. The Shakespearean sonnets are the sonnets that were altered by the Earl of Surrey and then adopted by Shakespeare for use in his plays and in his own sonnets.

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The poem’s vocabulary is old fashioned and suggests it comes from Biblical times and this adds to the moral of the poem, as without humanity even the “King of Kings” is a “colossal wreck”. Owen suggests that death and burial in the trenches was almost preferable to burial where civilians were present as they could not possibly know the extent of the soldiers’ suffering at war so burial in the trenches avoids this hipocrisy. The traditional “passing-bells” are now “stuttering rifles” and “guns”. The eighth line suggests that even God praises her “wit”. “His Lady’s Might”, the word “might” in the title means power. To give impact, Brooke uses alliteration, in the phrases “foreign field” and “sights and sounds”. Although the “blinds” are not drawn on the battlefield at each “dusk”, these men will be mourned in the sincerest form. The statue is transitory, it only lasts for a short time like all of man’s creations. It is clear that each line of the three quatrains idolises some of her features in a different way. The last six lines of the sonnet give the poets views and opinions and the rhyme scheme is irregular. Onomatopoeic words and alliteration is used for effect in the phrases the “rifles rapid rattle” and the “glimmers of goodbyes”. similar pattern of syllables per line. He is saying that despite all of her faults and imperfections, he loves her anyway for whom he sees; that inside she is a true beauty. This poem opens with a simile that compares the deaths of the soldiers in the battlefield to the slaughter of cattle. The poem is about a soldier who foresees his death.

Approximate Word count = 2125
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)

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