Whilst you will find a volta in many other forms of poetry, they are really quite important to the sonnet. You'll find more on how these lines rhyme in the sections on each type of sonnet below. In Shakespearean sonnets and Spenserian sonnets, on the other hand, you have three quatrains (four lines) and a couplet (two lines). So, in a Petrarchan sonnet (we told you he'd come up again!), the lines are grouped into two: an octave (that means a group of eight lines) and a sestet (a group of six). But what you need to remember is that depending on the type of sonnet, these lines are arranged in different ways. We've just noted that a sonnet has fourteen lines. So, to flesh this about a bit, let's pay a bit more attention to each feature. So, you have ten syllables: unstressed, stressed unstressed, stressed, etc.ĭifferent types of sonnets have different rhyme schemes, and some don't rhyme at all! You'll see more about this below. 'Pentameter' shows that there are five of these 'iambs' in a line. An 'iamb' is a set of two syllables, the first unstressed and the second stressed. This is what we call the metre of the poem: the number of syllables in each line of the poem. The break between the two parts is known as the volta. The fourteen lines are divided into two sections, usually of eight lines and six. You will find some exceptions, but the poets will do this deliberately. Generally, all sonnets have fourteen lines. The Sonnet's Main Features Fourteen lines So, to summarise, here are the need-to-know features of a sonnet. But to recognise a sonnet when you see one, you need to know the specific characteristics of that form. The Lady of Shalott, though not a sonnet, makes use of the iambic pentameter Source: Pixabay Credit: MZ Matuszewski0 The Most Important Features of a SonnetĪs we saw above, a sonnet is simply a poem written in a specific form. What makes this possible is the form's argumentative structure, which, as you will see below, is an essential part of the sonnet. You will these days see sonnets written on everything from politics to war to ice cream. Thirdly, whilst the sonnet is traditionally known for focusing its attentions on the theme of love, the form allows for a great flexibility in its content. The brevity facilitates the communication of a strength of feeling that can be lost in longer forms. Secondly, the sonnet, given its brief length, is great for expressing a feeling, thought, or idea. As you become more familiar with poetry, you will see that poets like to refer back to the ways that other poets had written in the past the sonnet offers a great way to do this.įind some fun poetry lessons on Superprof. Firstly, the appeal of the form is due to its association with some of the biggest names in the history of literature: Shakespeare, Petrarch, Wordsworth. Let it be said that the form has had enduring appeal among poets for a number of reasons.
Poets are still writing sonnets today - but, these days, writers are more comfortable with playing with the once-strict structure of the form. Over the centuries, all of Europe started to write sonnets - and, in the English speaking world, after Shakespeare, some of the greatest sonnet-writers are to be found in the Romantic period at the turn of the nineteenth century (these include names like John Keats, William Wordsworth, and Percy Bysshe Shelley). And, from this point, people in England and France began to write sonnets too. These include Petrarch - about whom you'll hear much more - Dante, and Guido Cavalcanti.ĭue to these poets' contemporary fame and prolific work, the sonnet became with them recognisable as it is today. Developed in Sicily by a bloke called Giacomo da Lentini in the thirteenth century, this little poetic form (whose conventions had not yet been formalised) inspired the greatest poets of the Italian Renaissance. The sonnet is originally an Italian invention - and the word sonnet itself is derived from the Italian word “sonetto,” which means a “little song” or sound. What is super-important to remember in the study of literature is that poetic conventions are determined by history - meaning that you need to know the history of poetic forms if you are really going to understand what the poets are doing. These conventions are what make a sonnet a sonnet (and don't panic, as we outline these below). This means that the word refers to a range of different poems that share certain conventions of length, structure, style, and themes. For those of you who have never before set foot into the world of literature, let's start from the very basics.
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