On the Late Massacre in Piedmont

“Whoso List to Hunt, I Know where is an Hind” by Thomas Wyatt (1530-1540)

One of the best known early English sonnets, Wyatt’s 14-line poem was written somewhere between 1530 and 1540 and has unrequited, courtly love as its subject. The sonnet borrows from the Petrarchan tradition and preserves the Italian form in the English, giving rise to what is called an Italian sonnet. In the Italian sonnet, the last six lines (sestet) rhyme under the pattern CDDCEE, whereas in the Petrarchan form, the more common rhyme scheme (arguably) would be CDCDCD or CDECDE. In his sonnets, including “Sonnet 18,” Milton often departs from Wyatt and preserves the Petrarchan rhyme scheme. Comparing the two sonnets, over a century apart, is useful in tracing the evolution of the form.

“When I Consider How My Light is Spent” by John Milton (1664)

This most famous of Miltonic sonnets shares with “Sonnet 18” its Petrarchan structure and perfectly metered lines. The difference between the two sonnets lies in subject, tone, and enjambment. While “Sonnet 18” is impassioned and political, Sonnet 19 is more meditative and personal in tone, exploring the subject of the poet’s loss of vision. In keeping with the poignant, reflective subject, the lines are less abruptly enjambed, their flow mirroring the poet’s wise, pensive tone. Reading Sonnets 18 and 19 together can give readers some idea of Milton’s poetic range and his diverse uses of the sonnet form.

“America” by Claude McKay (1921)

This passionate poem by Harlem Renaissance poet McKay recalls Milton’s “Sonnet 18” in uniting the political with the personal. Describing the poet’s love-hate relationship with the country that is racist against him, the sonnet is a powerful political statement as well as an intimate lament. Here, the poet’s America both feeds him “breads of bitterness” and animates him with culture, while in “Sonnet 18,” Milton’s God is both vengeful and redemptive. Both sonnets encompass the sheer range of human feeling and ambiguity and collapse the boundaries between the political and the intimate.