A sonnet cycle or sonnet sequence is a group of sonnets, arranged to address a particular person or theme, and designed to be read both as a collection of fully realized individual poems and as a single poetic work comprising all the individual sonnets. A sonnet cycle may have any theme, but unrequited love is the most common. The arrangement of the sonnets generally reflects thematic concerns, with chronological arrangements (whether linear, like a progression, or cyclical, like the seasons) being the most common. A sonnet cycle may also have allegorical or argumentative structures which replace or complement chronology. While the thematic arrangement may reflect the unfolding of real or fictional events, the sonnet cycle is very rarely narrative; the narrative elements may be inferred, but provide background structure, and are never the primary concern of the poet's art. Notable sonnet cycles have been written by

France Prešeren France Prešeren () (2 or 3 December 1800 – 8 February 1849) was a 19th-century Romantic Slovene poet whose poems have been translated into many languages.

Dante Alighieri Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called (modern Italian: '' ...

Petrarch Francesco Petrarca (; 20 July 1304 – 18/19 July 1374), commonly anglicized as Petrarch (), was a scholar and poet of early Renaissance Italy, and one of the earliest humanists. Petrarch's rediscovery of Cicero's letters is often credited ...

Pierre de Ronsard Pierre de Ronsard (; 11 September 1524 – 27 December 1585) was a French poet or, as his own generation in France called him, a " prince of poets". Early life Pierre de Ronsard was born at the Manoir de la Possonnière, in the village of ...

, Edmund Spenser, Rupert Brooke,

Sir Philip Sidney ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as p ...

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

, John Donne,

Justus de Harduwijn Justus de Harduwijn, also written Hardwijn, Herdewijn, Harduyn or Harduijn (11 April 1582 - Oudegem, 21 June 1636), was a 17th-century Roman Catholic priest and poet from the Southern Netherlands. He was the poetic link between the Renaissance an ...

William Wordsworth William Wordsworth (7 April 177023 April 1850) was an English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication '' Lyrical Ballads'' (1798). Wordsworth's ' ...

, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Hans Irrigmann,

Jacques Perk Jacques Fabrice Herman Perk (10 June 1859 – 1 November 1881) was an important Dutch poet of the late 19th century, who died young. His crown of sonnets ''Mathilde'', published by Willem Kloos, was the first important announcement of a renewal in ...

, Rainer Maria Rilke, and

Edna St. Vincent Millay Edna St. Vincent Millay (February 22, 1892 – October 19, 1950) was an American lyrical poet and playwright. Millay was a renowned social figure and noted feminist in New York City during the Roaring Twenties and beyond. She wrote much of he ...

List of sonnet cycles (sonnet sequences)

* William Shakespeare: ''Sonnets'' (first published 1609) * Justus de Harduwijn: ''De Weerliicke Liefden Tot Roose-mond'' (1613) * Elizabeth Barrett Browning: ''Sonnets from the Portuguese'' (1850) * George Meredith: ''Modern Love'' (1862) * Dante Gabriel Rossetti: ''House of Life'' (1881) * Jacques Perk: ''Mathilde, een sonnettenkrans'' (1882) * Edna St. Vincent Millay: ''Sonnets from an Ungrafted Tree'' (1923)

References

{{Reflist

External links

Elizabethan Sonnet Cycles
edited by Martha Foote Crow, covering ''Phillis'', by

Thomas Lodge Thomas Lodge (c. 1558September 1625) was an English writer and medical practitioner whose life spanned the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods. Biography Thomas Lodge was born about 1558 in West Ham, the second son of Sir Thomas Lodge, Lo ...

, and ''Licia'', by

Giles Fletcher Giles Fletcher (also known as Giles Fletcher, The Younger) (1586? – Alderton, Suffolk, 1623) was an English cleric and poet chiefly known for his long allegorical poem ''Christ's Victory and Triumph'' (1610). Life Fletcher was the young ...

, from

Project Gutenberg Project Gutenberg (PG) is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks." It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the oldest digital libr ...

Elizabethan Sonnet Cycles
edited by Martha Foote Crow, covering ''Delia'', by

Samuel Daniel Samuel Daniel (1562–1619) was an English poet, playwright and historian in the late- Elizabethan and early- Jacobean eras. He was an innovator in a wide range of literary genres. His best-known works are the sonnet cycle ''Delia'', the epi ...

, and ''Diana'', by

Henry Constable Henry Constable (1562 – 9 October 1613) was an English poet, known particularly for ''Diana'', one of the first English sonnet sequences. In 1591 he converted to Catholicism, and lived in exile on the continent for some years. He returned to E ...

, from Project Gutenberg
First edition of Shakespeare's Sonnets (1609), from The British LibraryDefinition of "sonnet sequence" from "Glossary of Poetic Terms"
(Poetry Foundation), with links to sonnets by George Meredith, Sir Philip Sidney, Rupert Brooke, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning Sonnet studies

List of sonnet cycles (sonnet sequences)

See also

References

External links