John Milton (1608-1674)

Milton's sonnets--which he produced over the course of his poetic life--reflect both contemporary public and private events.

By his time, the great surge of Elizabethan sonneteering had past, and he was left with a form that was still useful but was in need of a change in direction, focus and variety. Instead of returning to his own English literary forebears, Milton took to the original: he adopted the Petrarchan rhyme scheme and, in doing so, reenergized the English sonnet.

Although he is writing sonnets past their glorious age, Milton took his work with the tradition to new heights:

• He most often conceived the sonnet as a continuous verse paragraph, with
• the dividing thought cutting across the rhyme divisions, and
• the division into octave and sestet.
• He eschewed love as his primary theme--rejected traditional Petrarchan themes--and instead turned to such diverse topics as
• personal themes: his late maturation; his blindness; the death of his wife;
• public or "occasional" themes: the English Civil War, with its deep divisions; religious persecution; political protests;
• heroic themes: in praise of famous men [a development unique to Milton]

For originality, thematic variety, and craftsmanshsip, Milton's sonnets are unique in the language and are believed by some readers to be perhaps the most important development in the genre since Wyatt and Surrey.

So How Does This Sonnet Story End?

Essentially, sonnets do not disappear; in fact, they are still being written today. But they experienced their greatest vogue during the Renaissance, and thereafter they declined in popularity.

Although Milton dramatically revived (resuscitated?) the form, other poets were not inspired by his example. After him, very few sonnets were written during 1660-1740.

Eighteenth century and subsequent generations of writers tended to reject the sonnet form, but it still cropped up periodically. For example, Wordsworth and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, both 19th century writers, adapted the form to their own uses.