The standard subject-matter of early sonnets was the Major form of love poetry, and came to be adopted in Spain, France and England in the 16thĬentury, and in Germany in the 17th. Originating in Italy, the sonnet was established by Petrarch in the 14th century as a In either form, the 'turn' comes with the final couplet, which may sometimes achieve the Poet Edmund Spenser), which links the three quatrains by rhyme, in the sequence ababbabccdcdee. An important variant of this is the Spenserian sonnet (introduced by the Elizabethan Its foremost practitioner) comprises three quatrains and a final couplet, rhyming ababcdcdefefgg. (2) The English sonnet (also called the Shakespearean sonnet after Pattern has remained the most widely used in English and other languages. While relaxing the rhyme scheme of the octave to abbaacca.

Poets-notably William Wordsworth-have employed this feature of the 'Miltonic sonnet' However, the 'turn' is delayed to a later position around the tenth line. In a variant form used by the English poet John Milton, The transition from octave to sestet usually coincides with a 'turn' (Italian, volta) in Rhymed abbaabba, followed by a 6-line 'sestet' usually rhymed cdecde or cdcdcd. Most influential of the Italian sonneteers) comprises an 8-line 'octave' of two quatrains, (1) The Italian sonnet (also called the Petrarchan sonnet after the Schemes of the sonnet follow two basic patterns. Pentameters in English, alexandrines in French, hendecasyllables in Italian. Sonnet: a lyric poem comprising 14 rhyming lines of equal length: iambic

Modern sonnets in iambic pentameter