Sonnet Poems - Nneka

There are two different types of sonnets: the Petrarchan ( original ) sonnet and the Shakespearean ( altered / modern ) sonnet which have slightly different conventions but are very similar. It ( can be ) a lyric poem comprising 14 rhyming lines of equal length: iambic pentameters ( 5 stressed and unstressed syllables ) in English, alexandrines in French, hendecasyllables in Italian. 

Conventions of a sonnet:

A Italian sonnet ( Petrarchan ) has:

• has an 8-line 'octave' of two quatrains
• followed by a 6-line 'sestet'
• ryhmed abbaabba then cdcdcd or cdecde
• has a volta or turning point in between the quatrains and sestet
• composed of 14 lines

A English sonnet ( Shakespearean ) has:

• rhyming ababcdcdefefgg
• three quatrains and a rhyming couplet
• a variant of this is the Spenserian sonnet (introduced by the Elizabethan poet Edmund Spenser), which links the three quatrains by rhyme, in the sequence ababbabccdcdee
• the volta or turn comes in between the quatrains and rhyming couplet
• composed of 14 lines

Examples of sonnets:

• William Shakespeare – Sonnet 29
• John Donne – Death, be not proud
• William Wordsworth – Composed upon Westminster bridge
• Christina Rossetti – Remember
• Sir Thomas Wyatt – Whoso List to Hunt

Sonnet 29 -

When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes,

I all alone beweep my outcast state,

And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,

And look upon myself and curse my fate,

Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,

Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,

Desiring this man’s art and that man’s scope,

With what I most enjoy contented least;

Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,

Haply I think on thee, and then my state,

Like to the lark at break of day arising

From sullen earth sings hymns at heaven’s gate;

For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings

That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

About the Sonnet:

A sonnet is a poem that expresses a single, complete thought, idea, or sentiment. Originating in Italy, the sonnet was established by Petrarch in the 14th century as a major form of love poetry. It came to be adopted in Spain, France and England in the 16^th century; and in Germany in the 17th. Sir Thomas Wyatt was one of the poets that introduced the sonnet form to England and produced one of the worlds first sonnets.