The Sonnet Over Time: A Study in the Sonnets of Petrarch, Shakespeare, and Baudelaire

Although many authors have produced successful sonnets, Sandra Bermann demonstrates that Petrarch, Shakespeare, and Baudelaire are clearly among those who best exploit the genre's potential for rhetorical and thematic diversity. Through a series of close readings informed by a striking combination of linguistics, contemporary theory, and history, she highlights a variety of rhetorical strategies: metonymy in the Petrarchan sonnet, mobile metaphors in the Shakeperean, and allegory and irony in the Baudelairean. She simultaneously underscores transformations in meaning and voice in each poet's rendition of traditional themes.

Bermann concludes, however, that throughout these rhetorical and thematic changes, the sonnet maintains its focus on the poetic self. Whether this "I" marks a drive toward a strong, integral presence or emphasizes instead internal division and alienation, the very fact that the self remains so central lends some insight into the sonnet's longevity in the West.