CATHY CHANDLER'S COMMENT: “Requited Love”, a finely crafted list sonnet, is what is unofficially called a Wyatt/Surrey sonnet, named for the variations Sir Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey brought to the Petrarchan (or Italian) sonnet in the 16th century.
The Wyatt/Surrey sonnet features a quatorzain, written with a Petrarchan octave (envelope rhyme/rima baciata – “kissing rhyme”) abba abba, followed by an envelope quatrain (cddc) ending with a rhyming couplet (ee), primarily iambic pentameter. The volta (without extra line spacing) or a pivot (a shifting or tilting of the main line of thought) comes sometime after the 2nd quatrain.
I find “Requited Love”, with its play on the various definitions of the word “requited”, its matter-of-fact diction, and its use of repetition, alliteration and other devices, is a great example not only of a classic sonnet, but a wonderful poem in its own right.
|