sonnet
Fourteen-line poem
A sonnet is a fourteen-line poem following specific structural and rhyme conventions.
The form originated in Italy and reached English through Petrarch and Shakespeare, whose names mark the two main types.
Sonnets traditionally explore love, beauty, mortality, or philosophical themes in compressed, musical language.
The word has become shorthand for any short love poem: He wrote her a sonnet.
Eight-note interval
- sestetSix-line verse unit
- ItalianOf or from Rome's country
- PetrarchMedieval Italian lyric poet
- voltaRepeated section's alternate ending
turn · rhyme scheme · Laura · Canzoniere · beloved · idealization · unattainable · courtly love
Sonnet's defining measure
- iambic pentameterUnstressed-stressed pattern, five feet
- meterDevice that measures usage
- rhyme schemeSound-matching arrangement in poetry
- stanzaPoem's line grouping
volta · turn · argument · syllable · stress · foot · scansion · enjambment
Two successive verse lines
- sequenceOrdered succession of elements
- procreationGenerating biological offspring
- immortalityExemption from death
- WillMale name, nickname
Surrey · turn · epigrammatic · resolution · paradox · wordplay
Two-syllable metrical foot
- pentameterFive-foot poetic line
- stressedOverwhelmed by pressure
- unstressedWithout rhythmic emphasis
- scansionAnalyzing verse rhythm patterns
elision · spondee · pyrrhic · substitution · beat · rhythm · cadence · syllabic
Intense fond attachment
- desireIntense wanting
- beautyAesthetic excellence
- mortalityState of eventual death
- timeMeasured passage of moments
immortality · praise · beloved · absence · longing · devotion · nature · seasons
Heraldic shield notation
- conceitExaggerated self-admiration
- courtly loveChivalric romantic ideal
- RenaissanceEuropean cultural reawakening
- RomanticismEmotion-centered artistic movement
Browning · Wordsworth · Keats · Rossetti · revival
Seeking another's romantic favor
- marriageFormal union between partners
- English RenaissanceTudor-Stuart cultural flourishing
octave
Eight-note interval
volta · turn · rhyme scheme · Laura · Canzoniere · beloved · idealization · unattainable · courtly love · blazon
fourteen lines
Sonnet's defining measure
- iambic pentameterUnstressed-stressed pattern, five feet
- meterDevice that measures usage
- rhyme schemeSound-matching arrangement in poetry
stanza · volta · turn · argument · syllable · stress · foot · scansion · enjambment · caesura
couplet
Two successive verse lines
- sequenceOrdered succession of elements
- procreationGenerating biological offspring
- immortalityExemption from death
Will · Surrey · turn · epigrammatic · resolution · paradox · wordplay
iamb
Two-syllable metrical foot
- pentameterFive-foot poetic line
- stressedOverwhelmed by pressure
- unstressedWithout rhythmic emphasis
scansion · elision · spondee · pyrrhic · substitution · beat · rhythm · cadence · syllabic
love
Intense fond attachment
time · immortality · praise · beloved · absence · longing · devotion · nature · seasons · aging
blazon
Heraldic shield notation
- conceitExaggerated self-admiration
- courtly loveChivalric romantic ideal
- RenaissanceEuropean cultural reawakening
Romanticism · Browning · Wordsworth · Keats · Rossetti · revival
courtship
Seeking another's romantic favor
- marriageFormal union between partners
- English RenaissanceTudor-Stuart cultural flourishing
- poetrypoem, poems, poetry, verse, verses
- poetry termspoetry, rhyme, verse, rhythm, meter
- early literatureessay, novel, pamphlet, early novels, treatise
- european verseode, ballad, villanelle, sestina, rondeau
- historical verseepic poetry, ballad, ode, elegy, hymn
- lyric poemslyric poetry, ode, odes, villanelle, sestina
sonnetfree verse
Poetry without fixed structure
prose poetry · experimental poetry · found poetry · haiku · limerick
sonnetprose
Unversified language
essay · novel · short story · narrative prose · journalistic writing
- Shakespearean sonnetFourteen-line poem, ABAB pattern
- love sonnetsFormal verses about devotion
- Petrarchan sonnetFourteen-line poem, octave-sestet structure
- Italian sonnetFourteen-line poem, octave-sestet structure
- romantic sonnetsAmorous fourteen-line verses
- English sonnetFourteen lines, ABAB pattern