With the rhyme scheme ABBA, ABBA (or occasionally ABAB, ABAB) and CDE, CDE or CDC, DCD. These sonnets are usually divided into two quatrains and a final sestet. Traditionally in English, there are two forms of sonnet, the Shakespearian (popularised by William Shakespeare) and the Petrarchan or Italian.īecause Italian is a far more rhyme-rich language than English, Petrarchan sonnets are less varied in their rhyme endings.
Traditionally in English, sonnets are written in iambic pentameter and have fourteen lines. The sonnet is a poetic form first popularised by the Renaissance Italian poet Petrarch.
