One characteristic element of a sonnet is the turn, or to use the Italian word, volta. The typical definition holds that:
In a sonnet, the volta is the turn of thought or argument: in Petrarchan or Italian sonnets it occurs between the octave and the sestet, and in Shakespearean or English before the final couplet.1
In their contemporary American sonnets, poets Wanda Coleman (1946–2013) and Terrance Hayes (1971–) break this schoolbook volta mold in exciting ways that feel intriguing and fresh. But is volta-variation an innovation, or an example of everything old being new again?
Looking back to the origin of sonnets—before Petrarch’s 14th-century development of the eponymous Italian form, before Wyatt and Surrey’s English adaptations2—we find that the volta in sonnets penned by Giacomo da Lentini (approx. 1210–1260) and his 13th-century Sicilian…
You're reading a preview of
The American Poetry Review (Digital) - 1 Issue, March/April 2024