The curtal sonnet is a form invented by
Gerard Manley Hopkins
Gerard Manley Hopkins (28 July 1844 – 8 June 1889) was an English poet and Society of Jesus, Jesuit priest, whose posthumous fame places him among the leading English poets. His Prosody (linguistics), prosody – notably his concept of sprung ...
, and used in three of his poems.
It is an eleven-line (or, more accurately, ten-and-a-half-line)
sonnet
A sonnet is a fixed poetic form with a structure traditionally consisting of fourteen lines adhering to a set Rhyme scheme, rhyming scheme. The term derives from the Italian word ''sonetto'' (, from the Latin word ''sonus'', ). Originating in ...
, but rather than the first eleven lines of a standard sonnet it has precisely the structure of a
Petrarchan sonnet
The Petrarchan sonnet, also known as the Italian sonnet, is a sonnet named after the Italian poet Francesco Petrarca, although it was not developed by Petrarch himself, but rather by a string of Renaissance poets.Spiller, Michael R. G. The Devel ...
in which each component is three-quarters of its original length.
[Pitchford, "The Curtal Sonnets of Gerard Manley Hopkins". ''Modern Language Notes'', Vol. 67, No. 3. (Mar., 1952), pp. 165–169.] Thus the
octave
In music, an octave (: eighth) or perfect octave (sometimes called the diapason) is an interval between two notes, one having twice the frequency of vibration of the other. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been referr ...
of a sonnet becomes a
sestet and the sestet a
quatrain
A quatrain is a type of stanza, or a complete poem, consisting of four Line (poetry), lines.
Existing in a variety of forms, the quatrain appears in poems from the poetic traditions of various ancient civilizations including Persia, Ancient India ...
plus an additional "tail piece". That is, the first eight lines of a sonnet are translated into the first six lines of a curtal sonnet and the last six lines of a sonnet are translated into the last four and a half lines of a curtal sonnet. Hopkins describes the last line as half a line, though in fact it can be shorter than half of one of Hopkins's standard
sprung rhythm lines. In the preface to his ''Poems'' (1876–89), Hopkins describes the relationship between the Petrarchan and curtal sonnets mathematically; if the Petrarchan sonnet can be described by the equation 8+6=14 then, he says, the curtal sonnet would be:
: + = = .
Hopkins's only examples of the form are "
Pied Beauty
"Pied Beauty" is a curtal sonnet by the English poet Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–1889). It was written in 1877, but not published until 1918, when it was included as part of the collection ''Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins''. The Classic Hundr ...
", "Peace", and "Ash Boughs". "Pied Beauty" reads as follows, showing the proportional relation to the Petrarchan sonnet (not included in the original: the only indication of the form is in the preface). Accents indicate stressed syllables:
Hopkins's account of the form comes from the preface to his ''Poems'' (1876–89).
Critics
A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as art, literature, music, cinema, theater, fashion, architecture, and food. Critics may also take as their subject social or governme ...
are generally in agreement that the curtal sonnet does not so much constitute a new form as an interpretation of sonnet form as Hopkins believed it to be; as Elisabeth Schneider argues, the curtal sonnet reveals Hopkins's intense interest in the mathematical proportions of all sonnets. Lois Pitchford examines all three poems in detail in relation to the form as Hopkins imagined it.
The form has been used occasionally since, but often as a novelty, in contrast to Hopkins's quite serious use. Poets
Lucy Newlyn
Lucy Newlyn (born 1956) is a poet and academic. She is Emeritus Fellow in English at St Edmund Hall, Oxford, having retired as a professor of English Language and Literature at the University of Oxford in 2016.
Newlyn is a specialist in eighteen ...
and
R. H. W. Dillard
Richard Henry Wilde Dillard (October 11, 1937 – April 4, 2023) was an American poet, author, critic, and translator. have written examples that serve as explications of the form.
See also
*
Caudate sonnet
References
{{reflist
External links
Three Curtal Sonnets by Shaun C. Duncan ''The Society of Classical Poets'' (October 8, 2024)
Sonnet studies
ja:ソネット#カータル・ソネット