Petrarchan Sonnet Poetry

Introduction

The topic of William Shakespeare falling out, breaking or, vice versa, staying within the Petrarchan tradition of sonnet writing is quite popular among literary scholars: Alan Sinfield, Danielle Clarke, Katherine Duncan-Jones, Michael Schoenfeldt and some other/further scholars whose works are surveyed/examined in this paper constitute just a small part of all originally interested in this matter. Taking into consideration all possible approaches and point of view on the problem, this paper will argue that although being written within the Petrarchan tradition of sonnet writing, Shakespeare’s sonnets ‘struggle’ against it. Staying in the already existing love discourse, Shakespeare modifies its individual aspects/parts by doubling

Moreover, it is presumed/assumed that the speaker/Poet, the young man and the lady are three different/separate persons; that the speaker does not equal the author, that is William Shakespeare. This paper does not tackle/cover the formal aspect of the sonnets. That is to say there will be no comparison of the form and the rhyme scheme of the sonnet in both the Petrarchan tradition and in Shakespeare’s creative work. There will be as well paid no attention to speculations/arguments on the probable historical identity of the two beloveds and whether the sonnets are autobiographical.

The main body of this paper consists of three parts. The first part gives an outline to the Petrarchan convention of sonnet writing. The second part enumerates/examines resemblances/similarities with and deviations from that convention which can be traced in Shakespeare’s sonnet sequence. Lastly, the third part provides close reading of three sonnets out of the sequence, using as a source the exemplar/issue of Shakespeare’s Sonnets printed within the Arden Shakespeare series in

The fair cold beauty of Laura is transferred onto/carried over the Fair Youth of Shakespeare’s sequence: although still a model, it becomes a male, not a female beauty. Contrastingly, the female love object is bestowed/allotted with sensual attractiveness: the lady is described as black and thus falling out of convention, but still beautiful even if for the speaker and his friend. Nevertheless, these both beauties – classical and ‘other’ – do not seem to be equal in their rights: the idea of fleetingness of beauty appears only in the first – the Fair Youth – part of the sequence. It is the ‘true’ beauty which fades and it is the ‘truly’ beautiful person who suffers from the loss: since the Dark Lady does not reach the Petrarchan ideal of beauty, she is not offered the ways of eternalising her beauty. In such a way, the young man, who appears to be in possession of this ‘classical’ beauty, carries the burden and responsibility of being beautiful. In fact, the sequence already starts/begins with the speaker’s preaching/instructing his young addressee about the necessity of procreation. The poet elaborates on the idea of saving the young man’s beauty/good looks through progeny/offspring: “But as the riper should by time decease / His tender heir might bear his memory” (Shakespeare 1: 3-4). Later in the sequence, the speaker ‘realizes’ that