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English sonnet examples
he English sonnet is also known as the Shakespearean sonnet because it was created by William Shakespeare...as well as over 1500 words.
It is written in iambic pentameter (10 syllable alternately unstressed and then stressed (iambic), two beats or syllables is also known as a "foot" and each line has five (5) feet (pentameter).
The rhyme scheme for a Shakespearean/English sonnet is ABABCDCDEFEFGG. A modern gimmick, I will politely call it, is to break the sonnet up into three(3) quatrain stanzas and a couplet:
ABAB CDCD EFEF GG; I do not hold to such thinking.
An example of a Shakespearean sonnet is my sonnet "Necessary":
Such tears, all flowed, have tired my eyes and heart.
Where others held success as I had none,
There hoped a bosom cored of reasoned art
For instances made true had smiles begun
To fissure ice and armoured shells turned rust;
But none I knew sustained the gauntlet Time.
And none maintained their days to earn a trust,
Just processed thoughts a-swirl in rhyme.
From ponderous beginnings never seen—
For man presumed hung by queries and jest—
A beauty did shine where none before had been;
And I, unseen, bartered stone ’f my chest
If only she approved th’ guarantee
Made desperate, yearn as I, and she for me.
I have to look it up, but I
I have to look it up, but I seem to remember that the sonnet was imported to England from Italy as the Petcharchan (spelling) sonnet which was a precusor to the Elizabethan or Shakespearean sonnet form. The bard or some other Elizabethan poets modified the form which originated and was created by the Italians. 'f and th' are interesting. Will let you know. - slc