The Sonnet
The sonnet is a fourteen-line poem, written in iambic pentameter that focuses on an individual's feelings and thoughts. Iambic pentameter refers to lines that contain five metrical units, each one consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable.
Introduction
The sonnet, which in Italian means "little song," was perfected by the Italian poet Petrarch and was introduced into England almost five hundred years ago. The English developed a variation of the original rhyme scheme to accommodate the English language. This English form became known as the Shakespearean sonnet because of Shakespeare's great skill and mastery of the form. Its rhyme scheme is easy to recognize: abab cdcd efef gg.
The Shakespearean sonnet is divided into three groups of four lines and two final lines. The groups of four lines are called quatrains and the final two lines are called the rhyming couplet. The first quatrain generally introduces a situation; this situation is explained in the next two quatrains. Then, the poet usually shifts his thought process, expressing an insight he acquired from the first quatrains. The rhyming couplet then is his "clincher," his resolution to the situation.