Shakespearean sonnet
Fourteen iambic lines
A Shakespearean sonnet is a fourteen-line poem following a specific rhyme scheme (ABAB CDCD EFEF GG) and written in iambic pentameter.
Distinguished from the Italian or Petrarchan sonnet by its structure, it consists of three quatrains followed by a concluding couplet that often delivers a turn or resolution.
Shakespeare perfected this English form, using it to explore themes of love, beauty, and mortality.
We analyzed a Shakespearean sonnet in class today.
- voltaRepeated section's alternate ending
- rhymeMatching terminal sounds
- coupletTwo successive verse lines
- dark ladyMysterious, alluring woman
- meterDevice that measures usage
stressed syllable · poetic form · poetic tradition · iambic pentameter · rhyme scheme · stanza · quatrain · rhyming couplet · courtly love · scansion · fair youth · sestet · poetry · octave · lyric · song · verse · muse
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- poetry termspoetry, rhyme, verse, rhythm, meter
- european verseode, ballad, villanelle, sestina, rondeau
- Poetic Formsvillanelle, sestina, ballade, rondeau, limerick
- poetry formshaiku, tanka, limerick, limericks, ballad
- Shakespeare Poetryiambic pentameter, couplet, couplets, quatrain, quatrains
Shakespearean sonnetPetrarchan sonnet
Fourteen-line poem, octave-sestet structure
Shakespearean sonnetfree verse
Poetry without fixed structure
prose poetry · blank verse · experimental poetry · stream of consciousness · haiku
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