The Nature of the Sonnet

Kuhn argues that "gaps" and "indeterminacy" are intrinsic to the sonnet as a genre.

"The sonnet, an almost uniquely contained, delimited form of versification, is particularly susceptible to tinkering" (D-J 13).

"The couplet: a summary epigram that states a recurrent message in the preceding sonnets followed by a simple directive that echoes the language and topics of the quatrain" (Booth xvii).

"[By] 1642...[Milton fell heir to a single-sonnet tradition rich in humorous, occasional, satiric, heroic, friendly, and elegiac sonnet" (Nardo, 17).