Shakespearean Sonnet

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The term sonnet is derived from the Provencal word sonet and the Italian word sonetto, both meaning little song. By the thirteenth century, it had come to signify a poem of fourteen lines following a strict rhyme scheme and logical structure. These have changed during its history.

The Shakespearean sonnet, also called the Elizabethan or English sonnet, is a sonnet comprising three quatrains and a final couplet in iambic pentameter with the rhyme scheme abab cdcd efef gg.

This form of Sonnet was named after Shakespeare, not because he invented it but because he was the most famous practitioner of it.

Shakespeare's sonnets comprises a collection of 154 poems in the sonnet form by William Shakespeare, published in 1609. Their themes are love, beauty, poetry and the effects of time on all three. They were probably written over a period of several years, early in Shakespeare's literary career.

please go to the following link to read all of the 154 Sonnets.  They include discussion of each Sonnet.  http://www.shakespeares-sonnets.com/