The Sonnet “little song”

•  type of poetic structure and lyric poem composed of 14 lines

• Written in iambic pentameter- each line has 5 feet. Each foot or iamb consists of an unstressed syllable (breve) and a stressed syllable (ictus).

• The rhythm of iambic pentameter resembles a heartbeat.

• Sonnets have a set rhyme scheme

• Sonnets are a means of expressing something emotional.

• Sonnets present a problem and offer a solution or explore an issue and make a comment about it. The solution or comment is expressed in the couplet (last two lines of the sonnet.)

Sonnet Forms 1.  Spenserian sonnet-

Edmund Spenser’s own version

• Has 3 quatrains (groups of 4 lines) and a couplet (2 lines)

• The couplet gives meaning to the sonnet as a whole.

Spenserian Rhyme Scheme (interlocking rhyme scheme)!

Quatrain 1-abab Quatrain 2-bcbc Quatrain 3-cdcd Couplet-ee

2.  Shakespearean Sonnet- Shakespeare was the master of this sonnet form. He wrote 154 sonnets.

•  Like the Spenserian sonnet, the Shakespearean sonnet has 3 quatrains and a couplet.

Shakespearean Rhyme Scheme

Quatrain 1- abab Quatrain 2- cdcd Quatrain 3- efef Couplet- gg