A poem of fourteen lines, two stanzas, called the octave, being of four verses each, and two stanzas, called the sestet, of three verses each, the rhymes being adjusted by a particular rule
a poem consisting of three quatrains (4 line stanzas), ending with a rhyming couplet (two line stanza with aa rhyme scheme)
A lyric poem that is 14 lines long Italian (or Petrarchan) sonnets are divided into two quatrains and a six-line sestet, with the rhyme scheme abba abba cdecde (or cdcdcd) English (or Shakespearean) sonnets are composed of three quatrains and a final couplet, with a rhyme scheme of abab cdcd efef gg English sonnets are written generally in iambic pentameter
A sonnet is a poem that has 14 lines. Each line has 10 syllables, and the poem has a fixed pattern of rhymes. a poem with 14 lines which rhyme with each other in a fixed pattern (sonetto, from sonet , from son , from sonus; SOUND). Fixed verse form having 14 lines that are typically five-foot iambics rhyming according to a prescribed scheme. The sonnet is unique among poetic forms in Western literature in that it has retained its appeal for major poets for five centuries. It seems to have originated in the 13th century among the Sicilian school of court poets. In the 14th century Petrarch established the most widely used sonnet form. The Petrarchan (or Italian) sonnet characteristically consists of an eight-line octave, rhyming abbaabba, that states a problem, asks a question, or expresses an emotional tension, followed by a six-line sestet, of varying rhyme schemes, that resolves the problem, answers the question, or resolves the tension. In adapting the Italian form, Elizabethan poets gradually developed the other major sonnet form, the Shakespearean (or English) sonnet. It consists of three quatrains, each with an independent rhyme scheme, and ends with a rhymed couplet
A by now traditional form in English-language poetry, developed and perfected in the course of the sixteenth century, and deployed by poets up to the present day the classic form is strict: 14 lines of iambic pentameter, structured by one of two rhyme schemes The subject matter is usually emotional (especially love), philosophical or in the nature of an intellectual or logical puzzle Thje two main types of the sonnet are the Petrarchan and the Shakespearean As we are working with Shakespeare, we're going to concentrate on the latter (notes drawn from Paul Fussell, Poetic Meter & Poetic Form (London 1979))
a verse form consisting of 14 lines with a fixed rhyme scheme compose a sonnet praise in a sonnet
a poem in 14 lines of pentameter, rhymed either in the Petrarchan (Italian) pattern abba abba cdcdcd or in the Shakespearean (English) pattern abab cdcd efef gg; a sonnet should develop an idea or sentiment through two successive stages