Joshua holds a master's degree in Latin and has taught a variety of Classical literature and language courses.
When many of us think of sonnets, the first name that probably comes to mind is Shakespeare's. Most of our exposure to these poems most likely comes from pieces in 'The Bard's' vast collection; however, the so-called 'Shakespearean sonnet' wouldn't be what it is today if it weren't for one enterprising earl.
Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (1517-1547) lived and died a few decades before Shakespeare, and his poetic innovations sparked a revolution in English verse writing. Among them was Howard's introduction of a truly 'English' sonnet form.
Adapting his version from the highly-developed Italian sonnet, Howard eventually synthesized an English sonnet containing 14 lines of iambic pentameter following the rhyme scheme abab cdcd efef gg. Although Howard originated this form, Shakespeare widely popularized it with his many famous sonnets, leading to the name it now most commonly goes by.
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Henry Howard lived fast and died young. Had he lived more of a life that we might associate with a poet than a rock-star, he might've lived long enough to produce enough sonnets for them to be called 'Howardian' instead of Shakespearean. As it stands, though, the Earl of Surrey is thought to have actually composed many of the ones he did while imprisoned at Windsor between 1537 and 1539.
His father - Lord Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk - was heir apparent, or next-in-line to the throne, should King Henry VIII have no surviving male successors. While this might sound like a pretty nice position to be in, it actually caused the Howard's quite a lot of trouble.
Caught in a long-standing rivalry with another prominent English family, Henry and Lord Thomas found themselves under constant scrutiny. Many times, their rivals lodged false accusations against them at the royal court, but they were usually able to get away with no more than a little jail time.
With Henry VIII's health failing in late 1546, though, his growing paranoia led to a final blow against the Howard's. Henry and his father were accused of harboring Catholic sympathies and beliefs and conspiring to eliminate Prince Edward, thereby giving them access to the throne.
Despite efforts to defend himself, Henry Howard was found guilty of treason and beheaded 19 January 1547 on Tower Hill in London. Had his sentence been delayed only nine more days, he - like his father - would've escaped execution, seeing as how Henry VIII wasn't around to give the order after his death on 28 January 1547.
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Many readers found Howard's earlier versions of the English sonnet to be inferior to Shakespeare's, which debuted not too long after Henry's death and soon eclipsed their predecessors. We might not call many sonnets 'Howardian' today, but it certainly applies to these composed by Howard himself!
Most of the Earl's poetry never saw the light of day until collected with the works of other Renaissance poets and published ten years after Howard's death in Tottel's Miscellany (1557). Like most of his others, this sonnet is titled by its first line but also shares many thematic similarities to the rest. Poems like this one on subjects of love, beauty, and nature weren't just a favorite of Howard's but of many writers of the Renaissance, especially when claiming that feminine beauty is the ultimate gift of the natural world as he does here.
Continuing his celebrations of beauty, Howard composed this sonnet not only to commemorate the loveliness of a lady but of the poetic form that he had so carefully adapted. The narrator's addressee is 'Geraldine,' who was actually Elizabeth Fitzgerald, daughter of the Earl of Kildare. Of course, Elizabeth is from nowhere near Italy ('Tuscan'), so why the association? In writing this particular sonnet, Howard blends Italian imagery into descriptions of an Irish lady, demonstrating how his sonnets are really Anglo-Italian hybrids.
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In addition to the earliest sonnets in English, Howard helped revolutionize the language's poetry even further with other poems just like these!
With its carefully measured and rhymed lines, this poem by Howard might not appear all that innovative. Nevertheless, the fact that the narrative voice is that of a woman places Howard among the few poets to examine life from a feminine perspective. Of course, Howard here is once again following the example of several of his ancient and Italian predecessors who regularly displayed the female plight in their work.
One of the best-known Classical examples of the feminine perspective is the death scene of love-sick Queen Dido from the Latin poet Vergil's Aeneid, and Howard's translation of it revolutionized the world of English poetry even further. Many of us might be familiar with translations of ancient texts that are even a little 'sing-songy,' with the ongoing rhymes often becoming tedious and difficult to follow.
However, Howard chose a new way of translating these works, introducing English to blank verse - a poetic form consisting of unrhymed lines of iambic pentameter - in his translations from the Aeneid. Here, Howard has again contributed astoundingly to Shakespeare's career, whose many plays are often regarded as some of the best blank verse in the English language.
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Though widely popularized and known as the 'Shakespearean' sonnet, this form of the English sonnet was originally developed by Henry Howard. Adapting the form from that was used widely by Italian poets, Howard endowed the English sonnet with several distinct features, including its 14-line length, use of iambic pentameter, and abab cdcd efef gg rhyme scheme. In addition to sonnets, the earl also introduced English to blank verse - a poetic form consisting of unrhymed lines of iambic pentameter. Howard met his early doom with his beheading on 19 January 1547 at the order of Henry VIII after being found guilty of treason.
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