- A sonnet is a poem of fourteen lines, written in iambic pentameter
- The Petrarchan or Italian sonnet was created in the fourteenth century by Francis Petrarch. His sonnet consisted of the fourteen lines broken up into two parts, the eight and six. The first eight lines would set up the issue and the remaining six lines would be the resolution or the turning point.
- The Petrarchan sonnet had a rhyme scheme of ABBA ABBA, CDCDCD
- The Shakespearean or English sonnet was created by William Shakespeare; he divided the fourteen line poem into two parts as well. The first twelve lines set up his story and the remaining two lines, the rhyming couplet, gave the moral of the sonnet or the point of it.
- The Shakespearean sonnet has a rhyme scheme of ABABCDCDEFEF, GG
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