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Sonnet General Information
SONNETS
The sonnet is one of the principal poetic forms used by Renaissance poets in England during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Originating in Italy and often attributed to the Italian poet Petrarch, the form was brought to England and refined by Sir Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, during the time of Henry VIII in the early sixteenth century.
Wyatt and Surrey adapted the original form (see below) and made it so popular that many major poets in English since their era has employed the form at one time or another.
Shakespeare, Milton, Wordsworth, and many others have used sonnet structure to great effect.
The quality of a good sonnet depends largely on the skill that the poet demonstrates in saying something original, insightful, and/or beautiful within the tight and highly
formalized structure of the form.
Sonnets in English often follow one of two primary formats.
The Petrarchan or Italian Sonnet
a. Usually fourteen lines
b. Usually iambic pentameter (every other syllable stressed, starting with the second)
c. Thematically divided into an octave (eight line section) that presents a situation or
problem, often stated in two different ways in individual quatrains of four lines
each,
and a
d. Sestet (six lines) that often presents a response or answer to the octave.
e. Rhyme scheme is abbacddc (octave) and efefef(sestet)
The Shakespearean or English Sonnet
a. Again, fourteen lines typically.
b. Primarily organized into three quatrains (first two often forming an octave as above)
and
c. A couplet - two rhyming lines - at the end of the poem that often expresses
succinctly the theme or conclusion of the poem.
d. Rhyme scheme is usually abab cdcd efefgg.
The sonnet is one of the principal poetic forms used by Renaissance poets in England during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Originating in Italy and often attributed to the Italian poet Petrarch, the form was brought to England and refined by Sir Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, during the time of Henry VIII in the early sixteenth century.
Wyatt and Surrey adapted the original form (see below) and made it so popular that many major poets in English since their era has employed the form at one time or another.
Shakespeare, Milton, Wordsworth, and many others have used sonnet structure to great effect.
The quality of a good sonnet depends largely on the skill that the poet demonstrates in saying something original, insightful, and/or beautiful within the tight and highly
formalized structure of the form.
Sonnets in English often follow one of two primary formats.
The Petrarchan or Italian Sonnet
a. Usually fourteen lines
b. Usually iambic pentameter (every other syllable stressed, starting with the second)
c. Thematically divided into an octave (eight line section) that presents a situation or
problem, often stated in two different ways in individual quatrains of four lines
each,
and a
d. Sestet (six lines) that often presents a response or answer to the octave.
e. Rhyme scheme is abbacddc (octave) and efefef(sestet)
The Shakespearean or English Sonnet
a. Again, fourteen lines typically.
b. Primarily organized into three quatrains (first two often forming an octave as above)
and
c. A couplet - two rhyming lines - at the end of the poem that often expresses
succinctly the theme or conclusion of the poem.
d. Rhyme scheme is usually abab cdcd efefgg.