What is a Sonnet

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At first, it is difficult for me to understand the Sonnet. It is a bit difficult for me to properly understand it. But when I read more and more about the sonnet, about its iambic parameter, about its different form, I find it more interesting.

It is said that the word Sonnet is derived from an Italian word 'sonetto' which means 'a little sound or song'. And the writers of sonnets are called sonneteers. Here I want to tell you that Giacomo da Lentini was the creator of the sonnet. 

Later many Italian poets wrote sonnets including Dante Alighieri, Guido Cavalcanti, Petrarch, and Michelangelo, etc. But the most famous sonneteer was Petrarch.

Sir Thomas Wyatt introduced the Petrarchan Sonnet to England in the early sixteenth century. And the first sonnet in the English Language is written by Sir Thomas Wyatt. The most famous English poets who wrote English Sonnet were Sir Thomas Wyatt, Henry Howard' Earl of  Surrey, John Milton, Thomas Gray, William Wordsworth, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, etc.

Now let me tell you that Fourteen line poem is called sonnet. And is written in Iambic pentameter. There are different types of sonnets.

The most famous are

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1- Petrarchan Sonnet

2- Shakespearean Sonnet

Petrarchan Sonnet

In Petrarchan Sonnet 14 lines are divided into two stanzas. The first stanza is made up of eight lines which are called Octave (eight-line stanza) and the second stanza is made up of six lines which are called a sestet (six-line stanza).

The rhyme scheme is tightly woven, for example, abba, abba, cdecde or cdcdcd.

I want to make it super easy for you. Just look here↴

8+6= 14

Octave+sestet= 14

It is a beautiful form of poetry. His sonnets were admired throughout Europe.

Shakespearean Sonnet

In Shakespearean Sonnet 14 lines are divided into 4 stanzas. First 3 stanzas are made up of 4 lines each. Here I want to tell you that 4 line stanza is called a Quatrain. So Shakespearean Sonnet has three quatrains. While the 4th Stanza is made up of 2 lines called a couplet (2 line stanza). Three quatrains and a couplet. 

Its rhyme scheme is, abab, cdcd, efef, gg.

I want to make it super easy for you. Just look here↴

4+4+4+2= 14

quatrain+quatrain+quatrain+couplet= 14

Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets about love, beauty, the passage of time and morality. The first 125 sonnets are addressed to a young man while the remaining 28 sonnets are addressed to a woman.