why did the sonnet develop as a 14 line form?

October 18, 2005 8:14 PM

why did the sonnet develop as a 14 line form? is the number "14" an arbitrary choice that "caught on" or does it have some sort of specific symbolism?

i've been teaching the form for a while and i've always been a lover of the poem's sturctural demands, but i've never been able to find a sufficient or detailed explanation as to why poets "decided" on 14 lines as the limit for their sonnets.

any ideas?

posted by ronv to Writing & Language (8 answers total)

Knowing nothing about it personally, here's some stuff from google:

The Guittonian limitation of the sonnet's length to fourteen lines was, we may rest assured, not wholly fortuitous. The musical and poetic instinct probably, have determined its final form more than any apprehension of the fundamental natural law beneath its metrical principles. The multiplicity and easy facility of Italian rhymes rendered the more limited epigram of the ancients too malleable a metrical material in one way, and too obstinate a material in another, for while almost any one with a quick ear and ready tongue could have rattled off a loose quatrain, it was difficult to give sufficient weight and sonority thereto with a language where rhyme-sounds are as plentiful as pebbles in a shallow mountain stream. It became necessary, then, to find a mould for the expression of a single thought, emotion, or poetically apprehended fact, which would allow sufficient scope for sonority of music and the unfolding of the motive and its application, and which yet would not prove too ample for that which was to be put into it. Repeated experiments tended to prove that twelve, fourteen, or sixteen lines were ample for the presentation of any isolated idea or emotion; again, that the sensitive ear was apt to find the latter number a shade too long, or cumbrous; and still later, that while a very limited number of rhymes was necessitated by the shortness of the poem, the sixteen reverberations of some three or four terminal sounds frequently became monotonous and unpleasing. Ten or twelve-line poems were ascertained to be as a rule somewhat fragmentary, and only worthily served when the poet was desirous of presenting to his readers a simple pearl rather than a diamond with its flashing facets, though here also there was not enough expansion for restrected rhyme, while there was too much for merely two or at the most three distinct terminal sounds. Again, it was considered advisable that the expression should be twofold, that is, that there should be the presentation of the motive, and its application; hence arose the division of the fourteen-line poem into two systems.

So, basically, because 14 is a nice round even number. Here's the link quoted.
posted by moift at 8:30 PM on October 18, 2005

The Wikipedia entry says that a sonnet is an octave (8-line stanza) followed by a sestet (6-line stanza), with the two stanzas differing in tone. (In particular the sestet might be a response to the octave.) The octave itself was a poetic form that (maybe) predated the sonnet, whose rhyme scheme was abababab, just like the octave of a sonnet.
The predecessor to this was the strambotto, one of the earliest verse forms in Italian.
So, the eight-line poem is one of the oldest Italian forms. A six-line response was added onto it. I'm not sure what's so important about adding six lines, but Wikipedia's entry on the sestet doesn't have so much detail.
posted by CrunchyFrog at 8:46 PM on October 18, 2005

it's my understanding that at least in provencal literature, sonnets were often sung ... perhaps there was a certain musical structure that fit with a 14 line poem ... i suspect the true origins may be in the arabian/hispanic era and are probably obscure

here's a page that goes into much detail
posted by pyramid termite at 10:03 PM on October 18, 2005

I'm not a lit history major, but I do have a BA in lit. crunchyfrog is correct about Italian sonnets (except for the rhyme scheme. In italy, the octave rhyme scheme was abba abba.). English sonnets are, on the other hand, 3 quatrains (4 line stanzas) followed by 1 couplet (2 lines). I was taught that for english sonnets the idea was that the 3 quatrains would serve to setup a clever twist or profound statement in the final two lines. So the quatrains were standard fare in poetry by that point, and the 2 lines were intended as a short space in which to deliver the punch line or point.

but the italian sonnet, as described by crunchyfrog, came first. so that doesn't REALLY explain the number. What I can tell you about its history is this:

The sonnet was invented in italy by Petrarch, as I understand it. At the very least, if he didn't invent it, he popularized it. It was brought to England (and hence all English Speaking Countries) by Sir Thomas Wyatt, who translated petrarch's poems (taking liberal creative license, and making the majority of them subtly sexual) into English.

The Norton Anthology of Poetry tells us this about the italian sonnet structure: "The Italian sonnet, with its distinctive division into octave (an eight-line unit) and sestet (a six-line unit), is structurally suited to a statement followed by a counterstatement, as in Milton's 'When I Consider How My Light Is Spent.' "

and also:

"Another pattern common to the Italian sonnet - observation (octave) and amplifying conclusion (sestet) - underlies Keats' 'On First Looking into Chapman's Homer.' "

So, as near as I can tell, the idea on Petrarch's part was to set up an observation in 2 quatrains (an exceedingly common stanza size) and then provide a conclusion to illuminate and amplify the observation in a shorter stanza (which involves 2 tercets of cde to make the concluding sestet). But also to provide an argument in an octave and a counter argument in a sestet. For shakespeare's part, no one knows why he chose to do it the way he did when he invented the English sonnet. Presumably (and this is mere presumption on my part) because he was the kind of creative cat that didn't like doing things the standard way. No doubt he had a mohawk and a spiked collar at some point, too, and refused to get a real job.
posted by shmegegge at 12:57 AM on October 19, 2005

It could just be it's easier to write, in English, three quatrains and a couplet than an octet and sestet. English is less rhymable than Italian, I believe, and the ABBA-ABBA-CDEDCE rhmye scheme looks like a real killer. Slog... bored now... ouchtoocomplex.

So maybe this transition was necessary for the sonnet to survive. And Shakespeare was used to thinking in terms of three acts, and he also liked to tag couplets on to the end of things...

From a pure numbers point of view, 14-couplet=12, and twelve is easily divided into equal parts for development. I am not saying that was by design, but rather something about the length of 14 lines that made it easy to go from (4+4)+6 to 4+4+4+2 without changing the total length. If the Italian sonnet had been 15 lines, perhaps Shakespeare's still would have been 14, and you wouldn't have asked this question.

/wavinghands
posted by fleacircus at 4:06 AM on October 19, 2005

I'm honestly not sure of the answer either, but my guess would be that there is no structural reason why 14 lines has been settled upon--I doubt that it has anything to do with singing, breathing, 'natural length' of argument and counterargument, and so on.

Much more likely is that a particular poet found it particularly felicitous to write in a particular way. Shakespeare, for example, perhaps moved to three quatrains and a couplet because it suits his style of thought better; it allows for more iterations and elaborations of the ideas and then for a more pithy and cutting reply to those elaborations. Presumably the Petrarchan sonnet has certain aesthetic qualities that appealed to poets and readers of that time, particularly to Petrarch.

Anyhow--I'm still in graduate school in English, so today I'll ask around amongst my professors and see what they say--I'll report back!
posted by josh at 5:33 AM on October 19, 2005

I wouldn't reject the musical issue outright. The idea of a song as a joined set of lyrics and music composed to fit together is relatively modern. One poem could be set into multiple tunes, and in return, poets wrote lyrics to fit popular tunes originally created for instrumental performance, or a different set of lyrics altogether. The popularity of some sonnet forms may have been encouraged by the existence of matching musical forms, and the quatrain is an extremely popular lyrical form.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 6:03 AM on October 19, 2005

And Shakespeare was used to thinking in terms of three acts

Shakespeare's plays had five acts.
posted by ludwig_van at 8:42 AM on October 19, 2005