A. Sonnet in General

The sonnet is a complete poem of fourteen lines, usually written in iambic pentameter lines, with a variety of rhyme schemes. The three most important forms are the Italian (or Petrachan) sonnet and the English forms as represented by the Shakespearean and Spenserian sonnets. The sonnet is one of the oldest and most useful verse forms in English because of its simple yet flexible means to an artistic end: the expression of as much gravity, substance, and lyrical beauty as a brief and deceptively modest form can bear.

When the sonnet is written in a two-part form, (octave and sestet), the first eight lines of closed rhyme produce a certain kind of musical pace which demands repetition. Any expectation of stanzaic continuation is, however, counter-balanced by the six lines of interlaced rhyme with follow: the sestet is more tighly organized, and briefer, than the octave and so urges the sonnet to a decisive conclusion. The sestet usually provides some kind of consolidation of the material introduced in the octave. It 'supports the octave as the cup supports the acorn.'

Historically speaking, the original use of the sonnet was as a love lyric (a form which was overworked in the Renaissance), but its structure admirably suited it to express a great variety of moods and range of subject matter (e.g., politics, nature, encomiums, satire, etc.). The derivation of the word (from the Latin sonare, to sing) allowed it to be applied carelessly to any sort of lyric or ballad. Donne's Song and Sonnets (a title no doubt influenced by Tottel's famous miscellany), strictly speaking, contains no sonnets.