The sonnet XTEC（十四行诗XTEC）.pdf

The sonnet The term ‘sonnet’ derives from the Italian sonetto, a ‘little sound or song’. The first examples we have are by Giacomo da Lentini in 1230 but the sonnet established its importance as a poetic form with Petrarch’s Canzoniere (started in 1335). Petrarch describes his love for his beloved Laura using the typical features of courtly Francesco Petrarca love. The poet is a man who suffers because of a disdainful lady who is beautiful, and often cruel. He feels contrasting sensations, happiness or sorrow, love or hatred according to the presence or absence of the lady or to his different states of mind. The contrasting feelings also depend on the inherent paradoxes of desiring the lady while not wishing her to surrender, of hoping for success while wishing to suffer for ever. The feelings of the lady are important only in so far as they concern the poet. Petrarch idealized this kind of love and the poets who came after him took his sonnets as a model. In 15th century England, poetry had become dull and lifeless. In the Renaissance, English writers looked back to classical culture and to Italian literature. The sonnet ap