Sonnet is a European lyric style. Transliterated as "Shang Lai", the language originates from the Provence language Sonet. It was originally a short poem popular among people in the Middle Ages and used for singing.
Since Europe entered the Renaissance era, this poetic style has been widely used. The Italian poet Petrarch became the most important representative of the sonnet style. He wrote 375 sonnets in his life, which were collected into "Lyric Poems" and dedicated to his lover Laura. Each of his sonnets is divided into two parts: the former part consists of two four-line verses, and the latter part consists of two three-line verses, arranged in the order of four, four, three, and three. Its rhyme pattern is ABBA, ABBA, CDE, CDE or ABBA, ABBA, CDC, CDC. There are eleven verses per line, usually in iambic.
Petrarch's sonnets are neat in form and beautiful in rhyme, and their main content is to praise love and express the thoughts of humanistic masters. His poems paved a new way for the development of European bourgeois lyric poetry in terms of content and form. Italian poets of the same period and later poets from other countries regarded Petrarch's poems as a model of sonnets and imitated them. Therefore, people also call it Petrarchan poetry.
At the beginning of the 16th century, the sonnet style was introduced to England and became very popular. By the end of the 16th century, the sonnet had become the most popular poetry style in England. Produced famous sonnet poets such as Sidney and Spencer. Shakespeare further developed and enriched this poetic style, writing one hundred and fifty-four sonnets in his lifetime. Shakespeare's poem changed the format of Petrarch, consisting of three four-line paragraphs and a couplet, that is, arranged in four, four, four, two, and its rhyme pattern is ABAB, CDCD, EFEF, GG. Each line of verse has ten iambic syllables.
Shakespeare’s sonnets are a step forward than Petrarch’s, with more distinct and rich themes, twists and turns of ideas, and easy use of succession and transition. The meaning of the title is often pointed out in the last couplet. . Later, Milton, Wordsworth, Shelley, Keats and others also wrote some excellent sonnets.
Shakespeare's "Sonnets" (1598) is undoubtedly the highest achievement. But Mrs. Browning's masterpiece "Portuguese Sonnets" is also a rare treasure.