The fashion for the sonnet went out with the Restoration, and hardly any were written between 1670 and the second half of the 18th century. Amongst the first to revive the form was Thomas Warton, who took Milton for his model. Around him at Oxford were grouped those associated with him in this revival, including John Codrington Bampfylde, Thomas Russell, Thomas Warwick and Henry Headley, some of whom published small collections of sonnets alone.Bethan Roberts, Charlotte Smith and the Sonnet, OUP 2019, p.19 Many women, too, now took up the sonnet form, in particular Charlotte Smith, whose lachrymose Elegiac Sonnets (1784 onwards) are credited with helping create the 'school of sensibility' characteristic of the time.Cambridge History of English Literature (2005), p.231 William Lisle Bowles was also a close follower, but the success of both stirred up resistance in the poetic politics of the time.
The fashion for the sonnet went out with the Restoration, and hardly any were written between 1670 and the second half of the 18th century. Amongst the first to revive the form was Thomas Warton, who took Milton for his model. Around him at Oxford were grouped those associated with him in this revival, including John Codrington Bampfylde, Thomas Russell, Thomas Warwick and Henry Headley, some of whom published small collections of sonnets alone.Bethan Roberts, Charlotte Smith and the Sonnet, OUP 2019, p.19 Many women, too, now took up the sonnet form in particular Charlotte Smith, whose lachrymose Elegiac Sonnets (1784 onwards) are credited with helping create the 'school of sensibility' characteristic of the time.Cambridge History of English Literature (2005), p.231 William Lisle Bowles was also a close follower, but the success of both stirred up resistance in the poetic politics of the time.