Sonnets

Poems containing 14 lines

Iambic pentameter

- Iamb → two
- Penta → Five
o Two beats (one unstressed, one stressed) per foot
o Five foots per line.

Two main types of sonnets

Petrarchan

- Italian
- One octave (eight-lined stanza)
- One sestet (six-lined stanza)
- Volta (turning point) occurs after eighth line
- ABBA ABBA CDECDE (or CDCDCD and other variants for the sestet)
o Ie envelope rhymes + triple rhymes

Shakespearean

- English
- Three questions (four-lined stanza)
- One couplet (two-lined stanza)
- Volta occurs somewhere after the mid-point of the poem (line 7)
- ABAB CDCD EFEF GG
o i.e. Alternate rhymes + a rhyming couplet

Villanelle

- French
- Five tercets (three-lined stanzas), one quatrain (four-lined stanza)
- Rhyme scheme follows ABA, quatrain is ABAA
- First line and third line of poem are repeated
o First line is last line of second stanza
o Third line is last line of third stnza and fifth stanza
o Last two lines of the poem are the first and third lines of the first stanza

Sestina
 - Six sestets (six-lined stanza)
- One triplet (three-lines stanza)
- Last word of the lines repeat throughout poem
- Pattern
o ABCDEF
o FAEBDC
o CFDABE
o ECBFAD
o DEACFB
o BDFECA
o ECA (with BDF midline)

Pantoum

- Alternating lines
o Line one becomes line two in the next stanza
o Line three becomes lines four in the next stanza
o Last line is usually the first line of the poem