Sonnets are lyrical poems of 14 lines that follow a specific rhyming pattern. Sonnets usually feature two contrasting characters, events, beliefs or emotions. Poets use the sonnet form to examine the tension that exists between the two elements. Several variations of sonnet structure have evolved over the years.

Shakespearean sonnet

What is the relationship between the couplet at the end and the three quatrains of Sonnet 130? The couplet reverses the ideas stated in the first three quatrains.

Couplets are frequently used for comic effect. Adapting the Italian sonnet, English poets like William Shakespeare and Edmund Spenser wrote three four-line quatrains with a couplet at the end. The couplet is usually the most important passage, delivering the theme of the whole or commenting on it in a surprising way.

The sonnet is a type of poem that has been a part of the literary repertoire since the thirteenth century. Sonnets can communicate a sundry of details contained within a single thought, mood, or feeling, typically culminating in the last lines.

A sonnet is a type of fourteen-line poem. Traditionally, the fourteen lines of a sonnet consist of an octave (or two quatrains making up a stanza of 8 lines) and a sestet (a stanza of six lines). Sonnets generally use a meter of iambic pentameter, and follow a set rhyme scheme.

To illustrate, the structure of a Shakespearean sonnet consists of three, four-line stanzas, also known as quatrains, followed by a single, two-line unit called a couplet. The quatrains convey the poem’s theme while the couplet reflects upon and summarizes the overall theme.