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Here’s a quick and simple definition: A sonnet is a type of fourteen-line poem. Traditionally, the fourteen lines of a sonnet consist of an octave (or two quatrains making up a stanza of 8 lines) and a sestet (a stanza of six lines). Sonnets generally use a meter of iambic pentameter, and follow a set rhyme scheme.
There are several different styles and structures that go along with the label “sonnet” but none are better known than the Petrarchan and Shakespearean sonnet forms. The latter is also known as the English sonnet or Elizabethan sonnet while the former is sometimes called an Italian sonnet.
Sonnet structure. A sonnet expresses a single idea, but it is generally an idea that develops and expands, with multiple facets, leading to a conclusion – and all within a very specific rhyming scheme. In addition to this structure, all Shakespearean sonnets must have these two things in common: 1.
In the Shakespearean or English sonnet, each line is 10 syllables long written in iambic pentameter. The structure can be divided into three quatrains (four-line stanzas) plus a final rhyming couplet (two-line stanza). The Shakespearean sonnet rhyme scheme is abab cdcd efef gg.
Structure of a Shakespearean Sonnet The Shakespearean sonnet is fourteen lines long, as are all traditional sonnets. These fourteen lines are usually seen together in one stanza of text, but throughout time poets have chosen to break the structure up into stanzas .
A sonnet is a poem generally structured in the form of 14 lines, usually iambic pentameter, that expresses a thought or idea and utilizes an established rhyme scheme. As a poetic form, the sonnet was developed by an early thirteenth-century Italian poet, Giacomo da Lentini.
The Spenserian sonnet, invented by sixteenth-century English poet Edmund Spenser, cribs its structure from the Shakespearean—three quatrains and a couplet—but employs a series of “couplet links” between quatrains, as revealed in the rhyme scheme: abab, bcbc, cdcd, ee.
The Petrarchan sonnet is divided into two main parts, called the octave and the sestet. The octave is eight lines long, and typically follows a rhyme scheme of ABBAABBA, or ABBACDDC. The sestet occupies the remaining six lines of the poem, and typically follows a rhyme scheme of CDCDCD, or CDECDE.
This sonnet structure is commonly called the English sonnet or the Shakespearean sonnet, to distinguish it from the Italian Petrarchan sonnet form which has two parts: a rhyming octave (abbaabba) and a rhyming sestet (cdcdcd).
An English sonnet (or Shakespearean sonnet) differs in structure from the Petrarchan sonnet. Rather than using two quatrains and two tercets, Shakespeare’s sonnets use three quatrains and a couplet.