The World Of Sonnets

Hey members!

Did you know that William Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets in his lifetime!

Shakespeare is nearly synonymous with Sonnets! So what are Sonnets?

Sonnets are 14-lined poems that use the meter of iambic pentameter and follow a certain Rhyme scheme, for example, a paragraph of Sonnet 29 by Shakespeare :

When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes (A) I all alone beweep my outcast state, (B) And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries, (A) And look upon myself, and curse my fate (B)

A basic sonnet consists of 2 parts: An Octave and a sestet

Octave: An octave is the beginning eight-line subsection, which follows the rhyme scheme of ABBA ABBA

Sestet: A sestet consists of the last six lines

A Shakespearian Sonnet consists of three quatrains, four-line stanzas, and a couplet, which is two lines. The rhyme scheme of the poem is "abab cdcd efef gg" and it is written in iambic pentameter.

You're probably wondering: Who created Sonnets?

Well Sonnets were first introduced by an Italian poet called Giacomo da Lentini in the 13th Century

Here are a few sonnets for you to read and enjoy:

On the Grasshopper and Cricket BY John Keats

The Poetry of earth is never dead: When all the birds are faint with the hot sun, And hide in cooling trees, a voice will run From hedge to hedge about the new-mown mead; That is the Grasshopper’s—he takes the lead In summer luxury,—he has never done With his delights; for when tired out with fun He rests at ease beneath some pleasant weed. The poetry of earth is ceasing never:

On a lone winter evening, when the frost Has wrought a silence, from the stove there shrills The Cricket’s song, in warmth increasing ever, And seems to one in drowsiness half lost,

The Grasshopper’s among some grassy hills.

Try writing your own sonnets and enjoy the beauty of literature

See you next time!

Citations :

Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Giacomo Da Lentini". Encyclopedia Britannica, 6 Mar. 2018, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Giacomo-da-Lentini. Accessed 5 April 2021.

Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Quatrain". Encyclopedia Britannica, 10 Jul. 2020, https://www.britannica.com/art/quatrain. Accessed 5 April 2021.

Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Metre". Encyclopedia Britannica, 25 Apr. 2018, https://www.britannica.com/art/metre-prosody. Accessed 5 April 2021.

Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Couplet". Encyclopedia Britannica, 18 Oct. 2019, https://www.britannica.com/art/couplet. Accessed 5 April 2021.

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