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Definition: sonnet from Philip's Encyclopedia

Poem of 14 lines, most often in iambic pentameter and usually employing Petrarchan or Shakespearean rhyme schemes. The Petrarchan consists of an octet and a sextet, usually with an abbaabbacdecde rhyme scheme. The Shakespearean, having a final rhyming couplet, is ababcdcdefefgg.


sonnet

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
Genre of 14-line poem of Italian origin introduced to England by English poet Thomas Wyatt in the form used by Italian poet Petrarch and followed by English poets John Milton and William Wordsworth ; English playwright and poet William Shakespeare wrote 14-line sonnets consisting of three groups of four lines (quatrains) and two final rhyming lines (a couplet), following ] the rhyme scheme abab cdcd efef gg . The sonnet was very popular in Elizabethan literature and some of the finest lyric poetry of the period was written in the sonnet form. The sonnet sequence enjoyed a vogue during the 1590s, when several remarkable collections appeared, including Astrophel and Stella (1591) by English poet Sir Philip Sidney , Delia (1592) by English poet Samuel Daniel , and Amoretti (1595) by English poet Edmund Spenser . It was during this period that Shakespeare wrote his sonnet sequence. Sonnet form In a Petrarchan sonnet, the difference in the rhyme scheme of the first eight lines (the octet) …
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Full text Article sonnet

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
poem of 14 lines, usually in iambic pentameter, restricted to a definite rhyme scheme. There are two prominent types: the Italian, or Petrarchan, sonnet, composed of an octave and a sestet (rhyming abbaabba cdecde ), and the Elizabethan, or Shakespearean, sonnet, consisting of three quatrains and a…
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Full text Article SONNET

From The Princeton Handbook of Poetic Terms
(from It. sonetto , “a little sound or song”). A 14-line line poem normally in * hendecasyllables (It.), iambic pentameter (Eng.), or * alexandrines (Fr.), whose rhyme scheme varies despite the assumption that the sonnet form is fixed. The three most widely recognized versions of the sonnet, with…
| 2,541 words
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Full text Article sonnet

From Encyclopedia of Medieval Literature
The sonnet is a 14-line lyric poem that has its origins in medieval Italy. The term comes from the Italian sonnetto , meaning “little sound or song.” While the sonnet has become a prevalent literary form in a number of languages and has acquired different forms (most notably the Shakespearean or…
| 617 words
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Full text Article SONNET

From The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics
(from It. sonetto : "a little sound or song"). A 14-line line poem normally in hendecasyllables (It.), iambic pentameter (Eng.), or alexandrines (Fr.), whose rhyme scheme varies despite the assumption that the sonnet form is fixed. The three most widely recognized versions of the sonnet, with their…
| 2,552 words
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Full text Article sonnet

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
Genre of 14-line poem of Italian origin introduced to England by English poet Thomas Wyatt in the form used by Italian poet Petrarch and followed by English poets John Milton and William Wordsworth ; English playwright and poet William Shakespeare wrote 14-line sonnets consisting of three groups of…
| 520 words
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Full text Article sonnet

From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
Fixed verse form having 14 lines that are typically five-foot iambics rhyming according to a prescribed scheme. The sonnet is unique among poetic forms in Western literature in that it has retained its appeal for major poets for five centuries. It seems to have originated in the 13th century among…
| 157 words
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Full text Article The Sonnets

From Shakespeare's Theatre: A Dictionary of His Stage Context
The sonnet form goes back to medieval times, perhaps to poets at the Sicilian court of the Emperor Frederick II (1194 – 1250). The form was made fashionable by Petrarch , who used it as a kind of verse paragraph in a sequence mostly detailing his love affair with Laura. The Italian language’s…
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Full text Article Sonnets

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
Sonnets are short poems. They are written in a single stanza consisting of 14 lines of iambic pentameter and have intricate rhyme schemes. The form became popular in Britain in the 16th century. It has been used extensively since the Elizabethan period by poets such as John Milton, William…
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Full text Article SONNET SEQUENCE

From The Princeton Handbook of Poetic Terms
A subset of the * lyric sequence consisting of a series of * sonnets , of any number, that may be organized according to some fictional or intellectual order. The sequence made entirely of sonnets is rarer than readers often suppose and seldom holds an author's or a culture's attention for long…
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Full text Article Italian sonnet

From Encyclopedia of Renaissance Literature
The Italian sonnet appeared sometime during the second decade of the 13th century. The earliest surviving example is a sonnet by the Sicilian Giacomo da Lentino. Practiced by the poets of “the sweet new style,” the form served Dante for a sequence of sonnets entitled La Vita Nuova . The greatest…
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