6 Types Of Sonnets – Definition And Examples Of Sonnets

Answers To The Question: What Are The 6 Types Of Sonnets?

6 TYPES OF SONNETS – Sonnets are a work of literature that has been present and used as as form of expression for ages.

The word “Sonnet” is derived from the Italian “Sonetto” or “little song”. When used in poetry, sonnets use 14 lines written in iambic pentameter. Furthermore, each line consists of 10 syllables and has a specific rhyme scheme.

6 Types Of Sonnets - Definition And Examples Of Sonnets

Sonnets also have 6 types:

  1. Italian Sonnet
  2. Shakespearean Sonnet
  3. Spenserian Sonnet
  4. Miltonic Sonnet
  5. Terza Rima Sonnet
  6. Curtal Sonnet

Italian Sonnets

When I consider how my light is spent
Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide,
And that one talent which is death to hide
Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, lest he returning chide;
“Doth God exact day-labor, light denied?”
I fondly ask, but Patience to prevent

That murmur, soon replies, “God doth not need
Either man’s work or his own gifts; who best
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state
Is kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed
And post o’er land and ocean without rest:
They also serve who only stand and wait

Shakespearean Sonnet

“From fairest creatures we desire increase,
That thereby beauty’s rose might never die.
But as the riper should by time decease,
His tender heir might bear his memory:
But thou, contracted to thine own bright eyes,
Feed’st thy light’s flame with self-substantial fuel,
Making a famine where abundance lies,
Thyself thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel.
Thou that art now the world’s fresh ornament
And only herald to the gaudy spring,
Within thine own bud buriest thy content
And, tender churl, mak’st waste in niggarding.
Pity the world, or else this glutton be,
To eat the world’s due, by the grave and thee…”

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