The main different between Italian and English sonnets is the rhyme scheme, which, in Shakespearean sonnets is ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. There is also a different breaking of the stanzas-English sonnets are comprised of three quatrains and a couplet. While the volta sometimes occurs in the third quatrain, which is to say the ninth line and therefore in the same place as in Italian sonnets, Shakespeare usually saved his change of tone and conclusion just for the couplet. The English poet Edmund Spenser, who lived and wrote during the Elizabethan age, used a slightly different rhyme scheme in his sonnets: ABAB BCBC CDCD EE. This provides a tighter connection between the different stanzas. Modern SonnetĬontemporary poets have continued to expand on the sonnet form, choosing to write in trochees, tetrameter, in blank verse, and with different rhyme schemes, such as AABB CCDD EEFF GG. The sonnet is one of the most recognizable and common forms to be used in poetry. Though it has some restrictions on rhyme and meter, it is a relatively open form which allows for a great range of expression in sonnets. The Italian poet Giacomo da Lentini created the form in the thirteenth century, and it remains popular to this day with many contemporary poets. Some of the greatest poets in the world have dedicated much time to creating sonnets, such as Dante Aligheri, John Milton, William Wordsworth, Edna St. “Doth God exact day-labor, light denied?” My true account, lest He returning chide Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent Examples of Sonnet in Literature Example #1: Petrarchan SonnetĮre half my days in this dark world and wide,Īnd that one talent which is death to hide William Shakespeare wrote many sonnets, and even used the form in many of his plays, such as the famous prologue to Romeo and Juliet, seen below in Example #2. That murmur, soon replies, “God doth not needĮither man’s work or His own gifts.

Is kingly: thousands at His bidding speed,Īnd post o’er land and ocean without rest Who bestīear His mild yoke, they serve Him best.

Petrarchan sonnet examples by students