He was an actor and playwright, author of such stage classics as Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, The Tempest, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and dozens of other plays. Shakespeare is often discussed as the greatest writer in the English language.

Both sonnet forms have 14 lines, but differ in structure and rhyme scheme.

The English Sonnet, or Shakespearean Sonnet, named for William Shakespeare (1564-1616).

The Petrarchan Sonnet, or Italian sonnet, named for the Italian poet and scholar Francesco Petrarca (1304–1374).

Here’s how “pro” poets denote the rhyme scheme of an English sonnet (using Shakespeare's Sonnet #18, below):

Rhyme Scheme: rhyming syllables at the end of every other line, and a rhyme between last two lines.

Line Structure: pentameter, or ten syllables that means five tra-LAHs in a line, like so- tra-LAH tra-LAH tra-LAH tra-LAH tra-LAH.

It finishes with a two-line stanza called a couplet They are broken into three stanzas of four lines called quatrains. For English sonnets, here are the basic rules: In general, sonnets follow certain guidelines of rhythm and rhyme. Sonnets are forms of “lyric poetry”-poetry that expresses deep feelings. No form of poetry is more associated with love than the sonnet. Shakespeare's Sonnets: Crash Course Literature er, pin down this indescribable little thing called love. Browning’s case.įollowing are some of the words of wisdom people have used to try to pen. That’s pretty deep stuff-or high and wide, in Mrs. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height to some of the most memorable lines ever penned, such as these from an enduring sonnet by Elizabeth Barrett Browning: How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. Love poems have ranged from the silly and cute. That’s unlikely to change as long as humans have hearts that beat, eyes that gleam, and glands that sweat. It remains a favorite subject of thinkers and poets. But many, many more have shared the roller-coaster, pitter-pat, and clammy palms of first love and love-at-first-sight.

Many others have shared the heartache of lost love. Some writers have chronicled the comfort of long-lasting love, and the love of family and friends. But it’s a little hard to tell whether this wise man was giving a thumbs up to love’s inspiration or getting grumpy about the sometimes silly words love inspires.

That’s the observation of Plato, the legendary philosopher of Ancient Greece. Love Poems “At the touch of love everyone becomes a poet.”

Shakespearean sonnet iambic pentameter