A sonnet is a fourteen-line long poem in iambic pentameter. Each line has ten syllables and a regimented rhyme scheme.

Sonnets come in a number of different forms, the most well-known being a Shakespearian sonnet, which contains three differing quartets (groups of four lines), each with an ABAB rhyme scheme, followed by a rhyming couplet, which tends to summarise the message or mood of the poem. However, there are several other versions, such as the Italian sonnet (it is from the Italian word “sonetto”, meaning “little song”, that the sonnet gets its name), which contains an octet and a sestet, as well as at least four other set variations.

Due to their shortness, sonnets generally use their fourteen lines to explore a single idea or emotion. There is, however, such a thing as a “stretched sonnet”, which can be as long as sixteen lines or more.

Sonnet Writers:

• William Shakespeare
• Edmund Spenser
• Elizabeth Barrett Browning
• George Meredith