Sonnets
“If it’s square, it’s a sonnet.”
Thomas C. Foster
Sonnets
sonnet: 14 line lyric poem focused on a
single theme
 Shakespearean sonnet:

 three
quatrains (four lines) + a couplet
 rhyme scheme: abab cdcd efef gg

Petrarchan sonnet:
 An
octave (eight lines) + a sestet (six lines)
 rhyme scheme: abba abba cde cde OR
abba abba cdc dcd
Sonnets

turn: resolution or answer to idea posed in
first part of sonnet
 The
sestet usually answers the octave
 The couplet usually resolves the previous 12
lines
 Shakespearean sonnets sometimes have two
turns
Sonnets
rhyme scheme: regular pattern of rhyming words
in a poem (indicated by letter notation):
The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew,
The furrow followed free;
We were the first that ever burst
Into that silent sea.
a
b
c
b
Sonnets

scansion: a method of study that
measures rhythms in a poem
 Separates
metrical feet
 Counts syllables
 Marks accented syllables
 Indicates pauses
Sonnets
iambic pentameter: a line of poetry with
five iambs
 an iamb is a metrical foot, or unit of
measure, consisting of an unstressed
syllable followed by a stressed syllable
 pentameter means there are five such feet
in a line
Sonnets
iambic pentameter examples:

I went / uptown / to buy / a loaf / of bread

Forlorn! / The ve / ry word / is like / a bell
To toll / me back / from thee / to my / sole self!