2. A sonnet is a fourteen-line lyric poem, usually about love. The Sonnet Literary Focus: Shakespearean Sonnet The English, or Shakespearean, sonnet consists of three quatrains (rhyming four-line units) followed by a couplet (a pair of rhyming lines) at the end. The three quatrains often express related ideas. The couplet sums up the poet’s message.

3. Each line consists of five unstressed syllables alternating with five stressed syllables. Like most sonnets, the Shakespearean sonnet is written in a particular meter, or rhythmic pattern, called iambic pentameter: The Sonnet Literary Focus: Shakespearean Sonnet From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven’s gate —Sonnet 29, line 12 ˘ ′ ˘ ′ ˘ ′ ˘ ′ ˘ ′ = unstressed syllable ˘ ′

4. The typical rhyme scheme of a Shakespearean sonnet is abab cdcd efef gg. The Sonnet Literary Focus: Shakespearean Sonnet When, in disgrace with Fortune and men’s eyes, I all alone beweep my outcast state, And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries, And look upon myself and curse my fate —Sonnet 29, lines 1–4 First quatrain b a b a

5. Shakespeare’s greatest nondramatic poetry is in a group of 154 sonnets. These sonnets The Sonnet Background have a vast richness of language and imagery show an unusual depth of perception and feeling extend beyond the conventional subject of love to a contemplation of the beauty of life and the mortality of man

6. In his first 126 sonnets, Shakespeare celebrates his devoted friendship with a young man. The Sonnet Background [End of Section] He considers this relationship higher and less selfish than his passionate love for the “dark lady” who is the subject of the remaining 28 sonnets.

7. As you read your assigned sonnet, notice The Sonnet Literary Focus: Shakespearean Sonnet where each quatrain begins and ends which words rhyme in the quatrains how the couplet is used to sum up the message [End of Section] Click here to listen to the entire sonnet.