Sonnets 101

Shakespeare, amarrait?

Sonnets are 14-line poems, usually about love or general adoration. You probably know them from Shakespeare's sexually ambiguous witty masterpieces. I used to love them (ok, I still do), but now I have to revise all the forms and rhyme schemes and want to pull my hair out, so I hope this entry I cried-wrote will help you remember too:

1) Petrarchan (or Italian) Sonnet

Originated in the courts of Sicily, usually dedicated to idealized lover. 

A strong statement in an octave (rhyme scheme: abba abba), with a turn/question at the end of it, and the answer is found in the subsequent sestet (rhyme scheme: cde cde).

2) Shakespearan (or English) Sonnet

Written in iambic pentameter (usually), ends with a rhyming couplet where the "turn" is often not a resolution at all (especially with Shakespeare). The rhyme scheme is three quatrains (abab cdcd efef gg).

3) Spenserian Sonnet

Very specific version popularized by Spencer. Why, oh, why.

Three quatrains, linked by couplets, ending with final couplet. Rhyme scheme: abab bcbc cdcd ee. 

There might be alexandrine lines (iambic hexameter) in there.

Note: Nowadays this form is often subverted in many ways. See Elizabeth Bishop's magnificent One Art,  Edna St. Vincent Millay's beautifully titled What my lips have kissed, and where, and why and Jill Alexander Essbaum, whom I have not yet checked out, BUT she doth promiseth religious erotic sonnets. So there ya' go.

The three schemes in a nutshell (final nudge towards remembrance):

(Credits: Versification by Jon Stallworthy)