Sonnets English and italian
What is a sonnet?
A sonnet is a "small song". All sonnets have 14 lines. They are also written in iambic pentameter.
There are two major types of sonnets.
The Italian sonnet is divided into two sections by two differentgroups of rhyming sounds. The first 8 lines is called the octaveand rhymes:
a b b a a b b a
The remaining 6 lines is called the sestet and can haveeither two or three rhyming sounds, arranged in a variety ofways:
c d c d c d
c d d c d c
c d e c d e
c d e c e d
c d c e d c
An example of an Italian sonnet:
The English sonnet has the simplest and most flexiblepattern of all sonnets, consisting of 3 quatrains of alternating rhyme and a couplet:
a b a b
c d c d
e f e f
g g
As in the Spenserian, each quatrain develops aspecific idea, but one closely related to the ideasin the other quatrains.
An example of an English sonnet:
The Italian sonnet can also be called "Petrarchian" and the English sonnet can also be called "Shakespearean".