The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-02-02
sONNETs AND sONNETEERs.
Leigh HUNTS Postn1mous work. Z.

OF poem called the sonnet" will be read with
keen delight by the young poets, and with
careful attention by scholars, and with curl
osity by those who are neither scholastic nor
pOetical Hunt contends that the sonnet,
"while admitting OF greater and happier
levlty than those who think lightly of 1t
imagine, is in reality connected with some of
the most thoughtful, some of the most affect
ing, and some of the grandest events of the
most exalted men," Alter this prelude it
Is not surprising to see him wax warm in the
cause he espOusss-the cause of a form OF
verse in which the imitators vastly outnum-
ber the masters.
His expression of hope that his disquisi-
tlons may "excite disposition to the cultlva-
tiOn of the sonnet in all poetical quarters,
particularly those of the country in which
this book first makes its appearance"-that
country being the United States-will, we
fear find but feeble echo in the breasts OF
magazine conductors and newspaper editors,
most of whom have dreadful TecOllections OF
bushels of chat unredeemed by grains of
palatable wheat. However, Hunts counsel
to sonneteers viii be read, together with his
praise of concentrating, and his timely hints
may help to improve the general quality OF
the article. Let us hope so.
Thirteen Iules are laid down for the gui-
dance OF the sonneteer. Briefly, they are as
follows THAT sonnet must be legitimate
production, in the Italian fashion, with but
two rhymes to the octave and not more than
three to the sestette; it must have but one
leading idea; this idea must be clearly de-
veloped, with no forced rhymes nor super
fluous words, nor yet word too little or out
Of place; there must be no long words; the
rhymes mDst be so varied as not to beat upon
the same vowel and its interest should be
greatest at the close. With these concise
directions we receive a final admonition:-
$50 now, you who undertake to scorn the
sonnet, and see if you had not better have
made yourself little more acquainted with
what you scorned."
Scorn being clearly impossible after this
biting Iebuke of all scofIers, the reader is at
once introduced to the graver discussions Of
the subject, and here begins the really valua-
BILE part of the work. So complete history
of the sonnet has never before been written,
nor one which the most unpoetical reader will
study with mere interest. Beginning with
the Adam of sonneteers Friar Guittone,
of Arezzo, "the first to give the sonnet its
right WOrkmanlilIe treatment and Versitica-
tiOn"-Hunt proceeds to sketch the tender
and graceful efforts of Cino da Pistoia, Guido
Cavalcanti, Dante, and Petrarca. He com
paTes the two latter in a few terse phrases
which mark their individual peculiarities very
strongly -
The unquestionable superiority of Dante in
the sonnet, as appears to me, was the very I'M
portant one of grace over elegance; that is TO
say, OF the inner spirit OF the beautiful over the
outer; of unstudied as opposed to studied effect;
of sentiment expressing itself wholly for its
own sake, contrasted with sentiment selecting
its words Tor the sake of the words also.
Not that Petrarca had no grace. Far was he
from any such nulty. He had a great deal of
grace, but not SO much in diatin otIon from the
critical sense of it: not such reliance upon IL,
apart from the aid to be given it by the accom-
plishment of style. PetraIca has frequent IN
stances, not only of grace, but of passlon TO say
nothing OF the most exalted mind. But he lived
! 1.,-a lln l,N,
than Dante, was more prosperous and in favor,
and was also of a nature less given to extremes;
so that his poetry, like his life, was altogether
of a more equable description; and hence a differ
enCe in it from Dante's, which, if it rendered it
not so great, LETT it greatly beautiful, and, till
| society itself became stirred up and impassiOned
! with new revolutions, more popular
'Petrarca mas been pronounced mOnotOnOus.
! His subject, no doubt, Is mOnOtonous; and it is
! easy to give a few glanCes at him and lay him
! aside under that impression. But how is it that
the world has listened TO him so long! LADIES,
| too, may be thought to know something OF this
matter; and they are all in his favor. Ladies OF
no great turn for monotony in love have eX-
! pressly admired him for his variations on that
/ theme; and sentimental ladies have found him
/ as charming in the nineteenth century as he
/ was in the fourteenth, Nor are the other sex,
| whose goodwill he has not so bespoken less
! ervld in their eXtolments. Throughout the
| whole series of Italian poets, not excepting his
| tault-fnder Tassonl, his praises are constantly
/ sounding; and two of the latest and manifest of
them-Alferi and Foscolo worshpped the
! ground he trod on reign of five hundred
| years over the most poetical and musical OF
countries, with all Europe for its echo, is surely
! answer enough to a charge OF monotony.
at is 10 be acknowledged, however that you
| must listen closely, and that the more you
know OF his language the more you will find 1t
| YaIied.r ...
Tasso's sonnets, "lying as thick as stars in
his armament" are sharply criticised. While
some of them are splendid, other grand,
many are faint enough, as if through sick
ness or misfortune" and the faults are those
of eXuberance and verbal trifing. Tasso
"dld nothing peculiar for the sonnet" But
Marini was worse; he is the celebrated cor
| rupter Of Italian poetry, and he brought to-
gether in one sitting heap all the enermlties
committed by other poets, becoming "the
greatest and most proiuse master that ever
appeared of all that is adulterate IN false
poetry" Exit Marini!
An amusing chapter is given to the comic
sonnet OF Italy, and it is noted as curious
circumstance "that the stately and solemn
Milton should have been the first English
writer" to introduce this style of composition
to his cOuntrymen--the example in point
being his famous attack on the Presbyterlans
OF the Long Parliament, beginning
Because you have thrown off your Prelate
Lord.n
The comic chapter winds up with the fol-
lowing:-
"Crescimbeni, in the third book of Commen-
tarles' on his History of Italian Poetry mas
| given his readers q specimen of the sonnet
winch iterates but a single word Every llhe
solution OF riddle on the ship of the Argonants ;
| Dut Is not worth reDpatinU That no form or