Characteristics

- There are 3 types: Italian (“Petrarchan”), Spenserian and English (“Shakespearean”).

- A Shakespearean sonnet has 14 lines.
- It is written in iambic pentameter.
- Each quatrain in Shakespearean sonnet revolves around a different image or idea to express
the main theme of the sonnet.
- Shakespeare's sonnets are 154 in total.
- Shakespeare’s sonnets went on to explore different themes like friendship, passage of time,
beauty and mortality.

Structure

It has 3 quatrains (4-line sections) and one heroic couplet.

The rhyme scheme is ABAB (quatrain 1), CDCD (quatrain 2), EFEF (quatrain 3), and GG (heroic
couplet).

Shakespeare usually presents a problem in the first octet (8 lines) and a solution in the sestet (6
lines) with a volta (a turn) in line 9 which transitions from problem to solution.

In a Shakespearean sonnet, the argument builds up like this:

- First quatrain: An exposition of the main theme and main metaphor.

- Second quatrain: Theme and metaphor extended or complicated; often, some imaginative
example is given.
- Third quatrain: Peripeteia (a twist or conflict), often introduced by a "but" (very often
leading off the ninth line).
- Couplet: Summarizes and leaves the reader with a new, concluding image.