1. Sonnet Structure

2. What is a sonnet?
A fourteen line poem, with ten syllables in each line.
There are two types of sonnet- the English sonnet and the Italian (Petrarchan) sonnet.

3. Quatrain- a stanza consisting of four lines
Octave- an eight line stanza, created from two quatrains.
Volta/Turn- a change in the thought or argument of the poem

4. Couplet- a pair of lines in a poem that rhyme
Sestet- a six line stanza

5. Iambic Pentameter
Both Italian and English Sonnets use iambic pentameter.
Iambic pentameter is a line of verse with five metrical “feet” that contain an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable.
First Syllable Stressed Second Syllable Stressed

7. Italian (Petrarchan) Sonnet Structure
Consists of fourteen lines
Iambic pentameter
Consists of an octave and a sestet.
The volta, or turn, appears at the beginning of the sestet.
Often contains an exaggerated comparison between a woman and an object.
Rhyme scheme is typically either
ABBA ABBA CDECDE or ABBA ABBA CDCDCD

8. Whoso List to Hunt, I Know where is an Hind
BY SIR THOMAS WYATT
Whoso list to hunt, I know where is an hind, 
But as for me, hélas, I may no more. 
The vain travail hath wearied me so sore, 
I am of them that farthest cometh behind. 
Yet may I by no means my wearied mind 
Draw from the deer, but as she fleeth afore 
Fainting I follow. I leave off therefore, 
Sithens in a net I seek to hold the wind. 
Who list her hunt, I put him out of doubt, 
As well as I may spend his time in vain. 
And graven with diamonds in letters plain 
There is written, her fair neck round about: 
Noli me tangere, for Caesar's I am, 
And wild for to hold, though I seem tame. 

9. English Sonnet Highly personal Iambic pentameter
Consists of three quatrains and a couplet
The volta, or turn, is found in the couplet
Rhyme Scheme: ABABCDCDEFEFGG

10. Sonnet 18: Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day
Sonnet 18: Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer’s lease hath all too short a date; Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimm'd; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm'd; But thy eternal summer shall not fade, Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st; Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st: So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.