Sonnet Style Poetry
A lyric poem of fourteen lines, following one or another of several set rhyme-schemes. Critics of the sonnet have recognized varying classifications. The first, the Italian sonnet, is distinguished by its bipartite division into the octave and the sestet: the octave consisting of a first division of eight lines rhyming
abbaabba
and the sestet, or second division, consisting of six lines rhyming
cdecde, cdccdc, or cdedce.
On this twofold division the octave bears the burden; a doubt, a problem, a reflection, a query, an historical statement, a Vision of the idea. The sestet eases the load, resolves the problem or doubt, answers the query, solaces the yearning, realizes the vision. Again it might be said that the octave presents the narrative, states the proposition or raises a question; the sestet drives home the narrative by making an abstract comment, applies the proposition, or solves the problem.
The English (Shakespearean) sonnet, on the other hand, is so different from the Italian (though it grew from that form) as to permit of a separate classification. Instead of the octave and sestet divisions, this sonnet characteristically embodies four divisions: three quatrains (each with a rhyme-scheme of its own) and a rhymed couplet. Thus the typical rhyme-scheme for the English sonnet is
abab cdcd efef gg.
The couplet at the end is usually a commentary on the foregoing. The Spenserian sonnet combines the Italian and the Shakespearean forms, using three quatrains and a couplet but employing linking rhymes between the quatrains, thus
abab bcbc cdcd ee.
example:
An English Style Sonnet
