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The sonnet is one of the poetic forms that can be found in lyric poetryLyric poetry

Lyric poetry is a form of poetry that does not attempt to tell a story, as do epic poetry and dramatic poetry, but is of a m...
  from EuropeEurope

Europe is one of the seven traditional continents of the Earth....
.
The term "sonnet" derives from the Occitan word sonet and the ItalianItalian language

Italian is a Romance language spoken by about 70 million people, primarily in Italy....
 word sonetto, both meaning "little song." By the thirteenth century13th century

As a means of recording the passage of time, the 13th century was that century which lasted from 1201 to 1300....
, it had come to signify a poemPoetry

Poetry is a form of art in which language is used for its aesthetic qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its ostensible...
 of fourteen lines that follows a strict rhyme schemeRhyme scheme

A rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhyming lines in a poem or in lyrics for music....
 and specific structure. The conventions associated with the sonnet have evolved over its history. The writers of sonnets are sometimes referred to as "sonneteerSonneteer

Sonneteer is an archaic term for a poet who composes sonnets, though the individual may not necessarily write poetry exclusi...
s," although the term can be used derisively. Many modern writers of sonnets choose simply to be called "sonnet writers." One of the best-known sonnet writers is Shakespeare, who wrote 157 sonnets.

Traditionally, when writing sonnets, English poets usually employ iambic pentameterIambic pentameter

Iambic pentameter is a meter in poetry....
.






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The sonnet is one of the poetic forms that can be found in lyric poetryLyric poetry

Lyric poetry is a form of poetry that does not attempt to tell a story, as do epic poetry and dramatic poetry, but is of a m...
  from EuropeEurope

Europe is one of the seven traditional continents of the Earth....
.
The term "sonnet" derives from the Occitan word sonet and the ItalianItalian language

Italian is a Romance language spoken by about 70 million people, primarily in Italy....
 word sonetto, both meaning "little song." By the thirteenth century13th century

As a means of recording the passage of time, the 13th century was that century which lasted from 1201 to 1300....
, it had come to signify a poemPoetry

Poetry is a form of art in which language is used for its aesthetic qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its ostensible...
 of fourteen lines that follows a strict rhyme schemeRhyme scheme

A rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhyming lines in a poem or in lyrics for music....
 and specific structure. The conventions associated with the sonnet have evolved over its history. The writers of sonnets are sometimes referred to as "sonneteerSonneteer

Sonneteer is an archaic term for a poet who composes sonnets, though the individual may not necessarily write poetry exclusi...
s," although the term can be used derisively. Many modern writers of sonnets choose simply to be called "sonnet writers." One of the best-known sonnet writers is Shakespeare, who wrote 157 sonnets.

Traditionally, when writing sonnets, English poets usually employ iambic pentameterIambic pentameter

Iambic pentameter is a meter in poetry....
. In the Romance languages, the hendecasyllableHendecasyllable

Hendecasyllable verse is a kind of verse used mostly in Italian poetry, defined by its having the last stress on the tenth ...
 and AlexandrineAlexandrine

An alexandrine is a line of poetic meter....
 are the most widely used metresMeter (poetry)

Meter describes the linguistic sound patterns of a verse....
.

Italian sonnet

The Italian sonnet was invented by Giacomo da LentiniGiacomo da Lentini

Giacomo da Lentini was an Italian poet of the 13th century....
, head of the Sicilian SchoolSicilian School

In a literary context, the term Sicilian School identifies a small community of Sicilian, and to a lesser extent, mainla...
 under Frederick IIFrederick II, Holy Roman Emperor

Frederick II, of the Hohenstaufen dynasty, was a pretender to the title of King of the Romans from 1212 and unopposed holder...
. Guittone d'ArezzoGuittone d'Arezzo

Guittone d'Arezzo was a Tuscan poet....
 rediscovered it and brought it to TuscanyTuscany Summary

Tuscany is a region in central Italy, bordering on Latium to the south, Umbria and Marche to the east, Emilia-Romagna and L...
 where he adapted it to his language when he founded the Neo-Sicilian School. He wrote almost 300 sonnets. Other Italian poets of the time, including Dante AlighieriDante Alighieri

Durante degli Alighieri, better known as Dante Alighieri or simply Dante, was an Italian Florentine poet....
 and Guido CavalcantiGuido Cavalcanti

Guido Cavalcanti was an Italian poet who was a friend and colleague of Dante....
 (c. 1250–1300) wrote sonnets, but the most famous early sonneteer was PetrarcaPetrarch

Francesco Petrarca or Petrarch was an Italian scholar, poet, and early humanist....
 (known in English as Petrarch).Other fine examples were written by Michelangelo.

The Italian sonnet comprises two parts. First, the octaveOctave (poetry)

An octave is a verse form consisting of eight lines of iambic pentameter or of hendecasyllables....
 (two quatrainQuatrain

A quatrain is a poem or a stanza within a poem that consists of four lines....
s), which describe a problem, followed by a sestetSestet

A Sestet is the name given to the second division of a sonnet, which must consist of an octave, of eight lines, succeeded by...
 (two tercetTercet

A tercet is three lines of poetry forming a stanza or complete poem....
s), which gives the resolution to it. Typically, the ninth line creates a "turn" or volta which signals the move from proposition to resolution. Even in sonnets that don't strictly follow the problem/resolution structure, the ninth line still often marks a "turn" by signaling a change in the tone, mood, or stance of the poem.

In the sonnets of Giacomo da LentiniGiacomo da Lentini

Giacomo da Lentini was an Italian poet of the 13th century....
, the octave rhymed a-b-a-b, a-b-a-b; later, the a-b-b-a, a-b-b-a pattern became the standard for Italian sonnets. For the sestet there were two different possibilities, c-d-e-c-d-e and c-d-c-c-d-c. In time, other variants on this rhyming scheme were introduced such as c-d-c-d-c-d.

The first known sonnets in English, written by Sir Thomas WyattThomas Wyatt (poet)

ory:English poets|Wyatt, Thomas]]...
 and Henry Howard, Earl of SurreyFacts About Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey

...
, used this Italian scheme, as did sonnets by later English poets including John MiltonJohn Milton Overview

Milton redirects here, for other uses, see Milton ...
, Thomas GrayThomas Gray Summary

Thomas Gray , was an English poet, classical scholar and professor of history at Cambridge University....
, William WordsworthWilliam Wordsworth

William Wordsworth was a major English romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped launch the Romantic Age in E...
 and Elizabeth Barrett BrowningElizabeth Barrett Browning

Elizabeth Barrett Browning was a member of the Barrett family and one of the most respected poets of the Victorian era....
. Early twentieth-century American poet, Edna St. Vincent Millay, also wrote most of her sonnets using the Italian form.

This example, On His Blindness by Milton, gives a sense of the Italian form:


When I consider how my light is spent (a)
Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide, (b)
And that one talent which is death to hide, (b)
Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent (a)
To serve therewith my Maker, and present (a)
My true account, lest he returning chide; (b)
"Doth God exact day-labor, light denied?" (b)
I fondly ask; but Patience to prevent (a)
That murmur, soon replies, "God doth not need (c)
Either man's work or his own gifts; who best (d)
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state (e)
Is Kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed (c)
And post o'er land and ocean without rest; (d)
They also serve who only stand and wait." (e)

Occitan sonnet

The lone surviving sonnet in Occitan is confidently dated to 1284 and is conserved only in troubadour manuscript P, an Italian chansonnierFacts About Chansonnier

A chansonnier is a manuscript or printed book which contains a collection of chansons, or polyphonic and monophonic settings...
 of 1310, now XLI.42 in the Biblioteca Laurenziana in FlorenceFlorence

Florence is the capital city of the region of Tuscany, Italy....
. It was written by Paolo Lanfranchi da PistoiaPaolo Lanfranchi da Pistoia

Paolo Lanfranchi da Pistoia or Pistoja was a noted Italian poet who wrote in both the Italian and Occitan languages....
 and is addressed to Peter III of AragonPeter III of Aragon

Peter III , called the Great, was the king of Aragon and Valencia and count of Barcelona from 1276 to 1285....
. This poem is historically interesting for its information on north Italian perspectives concerning the War of the Sicilian VespersWar of the Sicilian Vespers

The War of the Sicilian Vespers started with the insurrection of the Sicilian Vespers against Charles of Anjou in 1282 and f...
, the conflict between the AngevinsCapetian House of Anjou Overview

The Capetian House of Anjou, or the Second Angevin dynasty, was a cadet branch of the Capetian dynasty, established by...
 and AragoneseHouse of Barcelona Summary

The House of Barcelona was a medieval dynasty which ruled over various territories in the Western Mediterranean....
 for SicilyKingdom of Sicily

The Kingdom of Sicily was originally a Norman foundation....
. Peter III and the Aragonese cause was popular in northern Italy at the time and Paolo's sonnet is a celebration of his victory over the Angevins and CapetianCapetian

Capetian is an adjective, used to describe either:...
s in the Aragonese CrusadeAragonese Crusade

The Aragonese Crusade or Crusade of Aragón was declared by Pope Martin IV against the King of Aragón, Peter III the Gr...
:

   Valenz Senher, rei dels Aragones
a qi prez es honors tut iorn enansa,
remembre vus, Senher, del Rei franzes
qe vus venc a vezer e laiset Fransa
   Ab dos sos fillz es ab aqel d'Artes;
hanc no fes colp d'espaza ni de lansa
e mainz baros menet de lur paes:
jorn de lur vida said n'auran menbransa.
   Nostre Senhier faccia a vus compagna
per qe en ren no vus qal[la] duptar;
tals quida hom qe perda qe gazaingna.
   Seigner es de la terra e de la mar,
per qe lo Rei Engles e sel d'Espangna
ne varran mais, si.ls vorres aiudar.
   Valiant Lord, king of the Aragonese
to whom honour grows every day closer,
remember, Lord, the French king
that has come to find you and has left France
   With his two sons and that one of Artois;
but they have not dealt a blow with sword or lance
and many barons have left their country:
but a day will come when they will have some to remember.
   Our Lord make yourself a company
in order that you might fear nothing;
that one who would appear to lose might win.
   Lord of the land and the sea,
as whom the king of England and that of Spain
are not worth as much, if you wish to help them.



An Occitan sonnet, dated to 1321 and assigned to one "William of Almarichi", is found in Jean de Nostredame and cited in Giovanni Crescembeni, Storia della volgar Poesia. It congratulates Robert of NaplesRobert of Naples

Robert, known as Robert the Wise, was the third but eldest surviving son of King Charles II of Naples the Lame and...
 on his recent victory. Its authenticity is dubious.

English sonnet or Elizabethan Sonnet

Sonnets were introduced by Thomas WyattThomas Wyatt (poet)

ory:English poets|Wyatt, Thomas]]...
 in the early 16th century. His sonnets and those of his contemporary the Earl of SurreyHenry Howard, Earl of Surrey Summary

...
 were chiefly translations from the Italian of PetrarchPetrarch Overview

Francesco Petrarca or Petrarch was an Italian scholar, poet, and early humanist....
 and the French of Ronsard and others. While Wyatt introduced the sonnet into English, it was Surrey who gave them the rhyme scheme, meter, and division into quatrains that now characterizes the English sonnet. Sir Philip SidneyPhilip Sidney

Sir Philip Sidney became one of the Elizabethan Age's most prominent figures....
's sequence Astrophil and Stella started a tremendous vogue for sonnet sequences: the next two decades saw sonnet sequences by William ShakespeareWilliam Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright widely regarded as the greatest writer of the English language, as w...
, Edmund SpenserEdmund Spenser

Edmund Spenser was an English poet and Poet Laureate....
, Michael DraytonMichael Drayton

Michael Drayton was an English poet who came to prominence in the Elizabethan era....
, Samuel DanielSamuel Daniel

Samuel Daniel was an English poet and historian....
, Fulke Greville, William Drummond of HawthorndenWilliam Drummond of Hawthornden

William Drummond, called "of Hawthornden" Scottish poet, was born at Hawthornden, Midlothian....
, and many others.These sonnets were all essentially inspired by the Petrarchan tradition, and generally treat of the poet's love for some woman; the exception is Shakespeare's sequence. In the 17th century, the sonnet was adapted to other purposes, with John DonneJohn Donne

John Donne was a Jacobean poet and preacher, the representative of the so-called metaphysical poets of the period, though t...
 and George HerbertGeorge Herbert

George Herbert was an English poet, orator and a priest....
 writing religious sonnets, and John MiltonJohn Milton

Milton redirects here, for other uses, see Milton ...
 using the sonnet as a general meditative poem. Both the Shakespearean and Petrarchan rhyme schemes were popular throughout this period, as well as many variants.

The fashion for the sonnet went out with the RestorationEnglish Restoration

The English Restoration or simply Restoration was an episode in the history of England beginning in 1660 when the Engl...
, and hardly any sonnets were written between 1670 and Wordsworth'sWilliam Wordsworth

William Wordsworth was a major English romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped launch the Romantic Age in E...
 time. However, sonnets came back strongly with the French RevolutionFrench Revolution

The French Revolution was a pivotal period in the history of French, European and Western civilization....
. Wordsworth himself wrote several sonnets, of which the best-known are "The world is too much with usThe world is too much with us

"The world is too much with us" is a sonnet by the English Romantic poet William Wordsworth....
" and the sonnet to Milton; his sonnets were essentially modelled on Milton's. KeatsJohn Keats

John Keats was one of the principal poets of the English Romantic movement....
 and ShelleyPercy Bysshe Shelley

Percy Bysshe Shelley was one of the major English Romantic poets and is widely considered to be among the finest lyric poet...
 also wrote major sonnets; Keats's sonnets used formal and rhetorical patterns inspired partly by Shakespeare, and Shelley innovated radically, creating his own rhyme scheme for the sonnet "OzymandiasOzymandias

"Ozymandias" is a famous sonnet by Percy Bysshe Shelley, published in 1818....
". Sonnets were written throughout the 19th century, but, apart from Elizabeth Barrett BrowningElizabeth Barrett Browning

Elizabeth Barrett Browning was a member of the Barrett family and one of the most respected poets of the Victorian era....
's Sonnets from the PortugueseSonnets from the Portuguese

Sonnets from the Portuguese, written ca....
 and the sonnets of Dante Gabriel RossettiDante Gabriel Rossetti

Dante Gabriel Rossetti was an Italian English poet, illustrator, painter and translator....
, there were few very successful traditional sonnets. Gerard Manley HopkinsGerard Manley Hopkins

Gerard Manley Hopkins was a British Victorian poet and Jesuit priest. ...
 wrote several major sonnets, often in sprung rhythmSprung rhythm

Sprung rhythm is a poetic rhythm designed to imitate the rhythm of natural speech....
, of which the greatest is "The Windhover," and also several sonnet variants such as the 10-1/2 line curtal sonnetCurtal sonnet

The curtal sonnet is a form invented by Gerard Manley Hopkins, and used in three of his poems....
 "Pied Beauty" and the 24-line caudate sonnetCaudate sonnet

A caudate sonnet is an expanded version of the sonnet....
 "That Nature is a Heraclitean Fire." By the end of the 19th century, the sonnet had been adapted into a general-purpose form of great flexibility.

This flexibility was extended even further in the 20th century. Among the major poets of the early Modernist period, Robert FrostRobert Frost

Robert Lee Frost was an American poet, one of the foremost of the 20th century....
, Edna St. Vincent MillayEdna St. Vincent Millay

Edna St. Vincent Millay was a lyrical poet and playwright and the first woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry....
 and E. E. CummingsE. E. Cummings

Edward Estlin Cummings , abbreviated E. E. Cummings, was an American poet, painter, essayist, and playwright...
 all used the sonnet regularly. William Butler YeatsWilliam Butler Yeats

William Butler Yeats was an Anglo-Irish poet, dramatist, mystic and public figure, brother of the artist Jack Butler Yeats...
 wrote the major sonnet Leda and the SwanLeda and the Swan

The motif of Leda and the Swan from Greek mythology, in which the Greek god Zeus came to Leda in the form of a swan, was rar...
, which used half rhymeHalf rhyme

Half rhyme, sometimes known as slant, sprung or near rhyme, and less commonly eye rhyme, is co...
s. Wilfred OwenWilfred Owen

Wilfred Edward Salter Owen, MC was an English poet. ...
's sonnet Anthem for Doomed YouthAnthem for Doomed Youth

Anthem for Doomed Youth is one of the best-known and most popular of Wilfred Owen's poems....
 was another sonnet of the early 20th century. W. H. AudenW. H. Auden Summary

Wystan Hugh Auden, known more commonly as W....
 wrote two sonnet sequences and several other sonnets throughout his career, and widened the range of rhyme-schemes used considerably. Auden also wrote one of the first unrhymed sonnets in English, "The Secret Agent". Half-rhymed, unrhymed, and even unmetrical sonnets have been very popular since 1950; perhaps the best works in the genre are Seamus HeaneySeamus Heaney

Seamus Heaney is an Irish poet, writer and lecturer from County Londonderry, Northern Ireland....
's Glanmore Sonnets and Clearances, both of which use half rhymes, and Geoffrey HillGeoffrey Hill

Geoffrey Hill is an English poet, professor of English Literature and religion, and co-director of the at Boston University...
's mid-period sequence 'An Apology for the Revival of Christian Architecture in England'. The 1990s saw something of a formalist revival, however, and several traditional sonnets have been written in the past decade.

Soon after the introduction of the Italian sonnet, English poets began to develop a fully native form. These poets included Sir Philip SidneyPhilip Sidney

Sir Philip Sidney became one of the Elizabethan Age's most prominent figures....
, Michael DraytonMichael Drayton

Michael Drayton was an English poet who came to prominence in the Elizabethan era....
, Samuel DanielSamuel Daniel

Samuel Daniel was an English poet and historian....
, the Earl of Surrey's nephew Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of OxfordEdward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford , Elizabethan literary figure, was born at Castle Hedingham to John de Vere, 16th Earl o...
 and William ShakespeareWilliam Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright widely regarded as the greatest writer of the English language, as w...
. The form is often named after Shakespeare, not because he was the first to write in this form but because he became its most famous practitioner. The form consists of three quatrains and a couplet. The third quatrain generally introduces an unexpected sharp thematic or imagistic "turn" called a volta. The usual rhyme scheme was a-b-a-b, c-d-c-d, e-f-e-f, g-g. In addition, sonnets are usually written in iambic pentameterIambic pentameter

Iambic pentameter is a meter in poetry....
, meaning that there are 10 or perhaps even 11 or 9 syllables per line, and that every other syllable is naturally accented. (Sonnets almost always have 10 syllable lines, but do not always have the natural accent)The sonnet must be 14 lines long, and the last two lines of the sonnet have rhyming endings (though there may be exceptions). In Shakespeare's sonnets, the couplet usually summarizes the theme of the poem or introduces a fresh new look at the theme.

This is the proper rhyme scheme for an English Sonnet (/ represents a new stanza): a-b-a-b / c-d-c-d / e-f-e-f / g-g

This example, Shakespeare's Sonnet 116Sonnet 116

Shakespeare's sonnet 116, first published in 1609, is one of his most romantic pieces, and is often quoted at weddings....
, illustrates the form:


Let me not to the marriage of true minds (a)
Admit impediments, love is not love (b)
Which alters when it alteration finds, (a)
Or bends with the remover to remove. (b)
O no, it is an ever fixed mark (c)
That looks on tempests and is never shaken; (d)
It is the star to every wand'ring bark, (c)
Whose worth's unknown although his height be taken. (d)
Love's not time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks (e)
Within his bending sickle's compass come, (f)
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, (e)
But bears it out even to the edge of doom: (f)
If this be error and upon me proved, (g)
I never writ, nor no man ever loved. (g)

Spenserian sonnet

A variant on the English form is the Spenserian sonnet, named after Edmund SpenserEdmund Spenser

Edmund Spenser was an English poet and Poet Laureate....
 (c.1552–1599) in which the rhyme scheme is, abab, bcbc, cdcd, ee. In a Spenserian sonnet there does not appear to be a requirement that the initial octaveOctave (poetry)

An octave is a verse form consisting of eight lines of iambic pentameter or of hendecasyllables....
 set up a problem that the closing sestetSestet

A Sestet is the name given to the second division of a sonnet, which must consist of an octave, of eight lines, succeeded by...
 answers, as is the case with a Petrarchan sonnet. Instead, the form is treated as three quatrains connected by the interlocking rhyme scheme and followed by a couplet. The linked rhymes of his quatrains suggest the linked rhymes of such Italian forms as terza rimaTerza rima

Terza rima is a rhyming verse stanza form that was first used by the Italian poet Dante Alighieri. ...
. This example is taken from Amoretti


Happy ye leaves! whenas those lily hands

Happy ye leaves! whenas those lily hands, (a)
Which hold my life in their dead doing might, (b)
Shall handle you, and hold in love's soft bands, (a)
Like captives trembling at the victor's sight. (b)
And happy lines on which, with starry light, (b)
Those lamping eyes will deign sometimes to look,(c)
And read the sorrows of my dying sprite, (b)
Written with tears in heart's close bleeding book. (c)
And happy rhymes! bathed in the sacred brook (c)
Of Helicon, whence she derived is, (d)
When ye behold that angel's blessed look, (c)
My soul's long lacked food, my heaven's bliss. (d)
Leaves, lines, and rhymes seek her to please alone, (e)
Whom if ye please, I care for other none. (e)

Modern sonnet

With the advent of free verseFacts About Free verse

Free verse is a term describing various styles of poetry that are not written using strict meter or rhyme, but that still a...
, the sonnet came to be seen as somewhat old-fashioned and fell out of use for a time among some schools of poets. However, a number of 20th-century poets, including Wilfred OwenWilfred Owen

Wilfred Edward Salter Owen, MC was an English poet. ...
, John BerrymanJohn Berryman

John Allyn Berryman was an American poet, born in McAlester, Oklahoma....
, Edwin MorganEdwin Morgan

Professor Edwin Morgan is a Scottish poet and translator who is associated with the Scottish Renaissance....
, Robert FrostFacts About Robert Frost

Robert Lee Frost was an American poet, one of the foremost of the 20th century....
, Edna St. Vincent MillayEdna St. Vincent Millay

Edna St. Vincent Millay was a lyrical poet and playwright and the first woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry....
, E.E. Cummings, Jorge Luis BorgesJorge Luis Borges

Jorge Luis Borges , was an Argentine writer who is considered one of the foremost literary figures of the 20th century....
, Pablo NerudaPablo Neruda

Pablo Neruda was the pen name of the Chilean writer and communist activist Ricardo Eliecer Neftal Reyes Basoalto....
, Joan BrossaJoan Brossa

Joan Brossa. Poet, playwright, graphic designer and plastic artist....
, Rainer Maria RilkeRainer Maria Rilke

Rainer Maria Rilke is generally considered the German language's greatest 20th century poet....
, and Seamus HeaneySeamus Heaney

Seamus Heaney is an Irish poet, writer and lecturer from County Londonderry, Northern Ireland....
 continued to use the form. The advent of the New FormalismNew Formalism

New Formalism is a late-twentieth and early twenty-first century movement in American poetry that has promoted a return to m...
 movement in the United States has also contributed to contemporary interest in the sonnet.

Related topics

Types of sonnets

  • Caudate sonnetCaudate sonnet

    A caudate sonnet is an expanded version of the sonnet....
  • Curtal sonnetCurtal sonnet

    The curtal sonnet is a form invented by Gerard Manley Hopkins, and used in three of his poems....
  • Pushkin sonnetOnegin stanza Summary

    Onegin stanza refers to the verse form used by Alexander Pushkin in his interpersonal epic Eugene Onegin....


Groups of sonnets

  • Crown of sonnetsCrown of sonnets

    A crown of sonnets is a sequence of sonnets, usually addressed to some one person, and/or concerned with a single theme....
  • Sonnet cycleSonnet cycle

    The sonnet cycle is a series of sonnets usually on a given theme, dedicated to a particular individual, or both....
  • Sonnet sequenceSonnet sequence

    A sonnet sequence is a group of sonnets thematically unified to create a long work, although generally, unlike the stanza, e...


Forms commonly associated with sonnets

  • QuatorzainQuatorzain

    A quatorzain is a poem of fourteen lines....
  • FourteenerFourteener (poetry)

    A Fourteener, in poetry, is a line consisting of 14 syllables, usually having 7 iambic feet, often used in 16th century Engl...


Bibliography

  • I. Bell, et al. A Companion to Shakespeare's Sonnets. Blackwell Pub., 2006. ISBN 1405121556.*T. W. H. Crosland. The English Sonnet. Hesperides Press, 2006. ISBN 1406796913.
  • J. Fuller. The Oxford Book of Sonnets. Oxford Univ. Press, 2002. ISBN 0192803891.
  • J. Fuller. The Sonnet. (The Critical Idiom: #26). Methuen & Co., 1972. ISBN 0416656900.
  • J. Hollander. Sonnets: From Dante to the Present. Everyman's Library, 2001. ISBN 0375411771.
  • P. Levin. The Penguin Book of the Sonnet: 500 Years of a Classic Tradition in English. Penguin, 2001. ISBN 0140589295.
  • J. Phelan. The Nineteenth Century Sonnet. Palgrave-Macmillan, 2005. ISBN 1403938040.
  • S. Regan. The Sonnet. Oxford Univ. Press, 2006. ISBN 0192893076.
  • M. R. G. Spiller. The Development of the Sonnet: An Introduction. Routledge, 1992. ISBN 0415087414.
  • M. R. G. Spiller. The Sonnet Sequence: A Study of Its Strategies. Twayne Pub., 1997. ISBN 0805709703.

External links