Acta Litteraria Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 33. (1991)
Gergye, L.: The Reanaissance Sonnet and its Disintegration
GERGYE, L. fitts" is so strong that it is extended to the couplet of the sonnet by an enjambement. But the tension of the poem is not decreased in the couplet. In fact, the inversion of logical values leads to a sharp paradox: "save that here /Those are my best dayes, when I shake with feare." In order to provide a thorough examination of the poem we should define the function of the grammatical and rhetorical figures. In his thesis on Donne's Petrarchism, Werner von Koppenfels gives a detailed analysis of the rhetorical figures characteristic of the poet. According to his analysis the series of antitheses and paradoxes are the most 14 important figures. The functional role of paradoxes in John Donne's poetry has been well known. Hansruedi Faerber divided Donne's paradoxes into two groups: religious and love paradoxes. He thinks that the interpretation of love paradoxes is more difficult than that of religious paradoxes.^ Werner von Koppenfels's approach is different. His division is based upon conceptual and verbal paradoxes which are illustrated by many examples. Both the qualitative and quantitative increase of paradoxes in the structure and meaning of Donne's sonnets are noticeable. As we have already mentioned, the rhetorical figures containing logical contradictions are in the sestets of Spenser's sonnets. However, the tension of the sestets is dissolved in the couplets. In contrast, it is the paradoxes that make up the couplets in more than half of the Holy Sonnets. Hence, there is no space for the dissolution of logical tension anymore. This could be an explanation for the fact that the endings of Spenserian sonnets give a general impression of harmony. At the same time, Donne's rhyming couplets radiate vibrating excitement and disharmony caused by the open composition. This supposition is proved by the meaning of paradoxes and oxymorons. In Amoretti XXX lovesickness functions only within Petrarchan verbal expression; it does not effect the joie de vivre. Donne's Petrarchism, however, no longer contains the elements of dissonance. The Renaissance balance of heaven and earth is alien to Donne's Holy Sonnets. The scales are tipped in favour of God and the heavenly spheres. The discrepancy of Petrarchist form and anti-Petrarchist content is illustrated in the second quatrain of Holy Sonnet XIX, which is perfectly parallel in structure. On the rhetorical level, this discrepancy is expressed by the antitheses combined with comparison. The proportional