Sonnet

The sonnet is one of the most enduring and versatile fixed forms in Western poetry, consisting of fourteen lines written in iambic pentameter. Its two principal variants are the Italian (Petrarchan) sonnet, which divides into an octave (ABBAABBA) and a sestet (typically CDECDE or CDCDCD), and the English (Shakespearean) sonnet, which consists of three quatrains and a closing couplet (ABABCDCDEFEFGG). A third major variant, the Spenserian sonnet, links its quatrains through interlocking rhymes (ABABBCBCCDCDEE). Despite their structural differences, all sonnets share the quality of compression: fourteen lines is enough to develop an argument, explore a paradox, or capture a moment of intense feeling, but not so much that the form loses its tension.

Shakespeare's 154 sonnets remain the most famous sequence in English, exploring love, beauty, time, and mortality with extraordinary range within the form's constraints. Sonnet 18 ("Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?") and Sonnet 130 ("My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun") demonstrate how the same structure can serve both idealization and ironic subversion. Petrarch's Canzoniere established the Italian form as a vehicle for exploring the contradictions of unrequited love. In the twentieth century, poets like Edna St. Vincent Millay revitalized the sonnet with modern diction and feminist themes, while Terrance Hayes's Golden Shovel sonnets and the invention of the "American Sonnet" sequence show that the form continues to evolve.

Writing sonnets is one of the best exercises for developing craft, because the form's constraints force you to make every word earn its place. Begin by reading dozens of sonnets from different periods to internalize the form's rhythm and proportions. When writing your own, start with the turn, the volta, the moment where the poem's argument shifts, because the turn is the engine of the sonnet. In an Italian sonnet, the turn typically falls between the octave and sestet; in an English sonnet, it often arrives at the closing couplet. Do not be afraid to use the form loosely at first. Many contemporary poets write "near sonnets" with slant rhymes or fourteen lines of free verse, using the form as a gravitational field rather than a rigid cage.