Sonnets

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Sonnets
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Poetic Terms Definitions

• Metaphor
• A direct comparison between two things.
• Examples
• Life is a dream
• Love is a vale of tears.
• Life is a hard road.

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• Extended Metaphor
• A metaphor that is extended throughout a
  poem.Does NOT contain the words like or as.
• Quatrain
• A stanza or poem of four lines.
• Sonnet(little song)
• A poem of fourteen lines usually written in
  rhymed iambic pentameter.
• Rhyme Scheme
• The pattern of end rhyme in a poem charter by
  assigning a letter to each line.

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Two Most Common Forms of a Sonnet

• Petrarchan (Italian) sonnet
• 14 lines long, made up of two parts- n eight line
  section (octave) followed by a six-line section
  (sestet). The octave usually raises an issue,
  asks a question or poses a problem. The sestet
  solves it or responds to it.
• Rhyme Scheme
• Octave a, b, b, a a, b, b, a
• Sestet (varies) c,d,e c,d,e OR c,d,c d, c, d

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• Elizabethan (Shakespearean) sonnet
• 14 lines long. Consists of three quatrains and a
  final couplet.
• Rhyme Scheme
• a, b, a, b
• c, d, c, d
• e, f, e, f
• g, g
• A third, but less common form of sonnet is the
  Spenserian sonnet
• Spenserian sonnet 14 lines long variation of the
  Shakespearean sonnet but uses an interlocking
  rhyme scheme. The second rhyme in the next
  quatrain
• Rhyme Scheme
• a, b, a, b
• b, c, b, c
• c, d, c, d
• e, e