Sonnet is a European lyric style. Transliterated as "Shang Lai", the language originates from the Provence language Sonet. It was originally a short poem popular among people in the Middle Ages and used for singing.
Since Europe entered the Renaissance era, this poetic style has been widely used. The Italian poet Petrarch became the most important representative of the sonnet style. He wrote 375 sonnets in his life, which were collected into "Lyric Poems" and dedicated to his lover Laura. Each of his sonnets is divided into two parts: the former part consists of two four-line verses, and the latter part consists of two three-line verses, arranged in the order of four, four, three, and three. Its rhyme pattern is ABBA, ABBA, CDE, CDE or ABBA, ABBA, CDC, CDC. There are eleven verses per line, usually in iambic.
Petrarch’s sonnets are neat in form and beautiful in rhyme, and their main contents are to praise love and express the thoughts of humanistic masters. His poems paved a new way for the development of European bourgeois lyric poetry in terms of content and form. Italian poets of the same period and later poets from other countries regarded Petrarch's poems as a model of sonnets and imitated them. Therefore, people also call it Petrarchan poetry.
At the beginning of the 16th century, the sonnet style was introduced to England and became very popular. By the end of the 16th century, the sonnet had become the most popular poetry style in England. Produced famous sonnet poets such as Sidney and Spencer. Shakespeare further developed and enriched this poetic style, writing one hundred and fifty-four sonnets in his lifetime. Shakespeare's poem changed the format of Petrarch, consisting of three four-line paragraphs and a couplet, that is, arranged in four, four, four, two, and its rhyme pattern is ABAB, CDCD, EFEF, GG. Each line of verse has ten iambic syllables.
Shakespeare's sonnets are a step forward than Petrarch's. The themes are more vivid and rich, the ideas are twists and turns, and they can be used freely in succession and transition. They often point out the meaning of the title in the last couplet. . Later, Milton, Wordsworth, Shelley, Keats and others also wrote some excellent sonnets.
Italian Sonnet
Italian Sonnet is divided into two sections, eight and six. The rhyme cards for the first eight lines are a-b-b-a, a-b-b-a. There are two options for the last six sentences, c-d-e-c-d-e, or c-d-c-c-d-c. The ninth sentence not only changes the rhyme pattern, but also often has a different title or feeling.
The rules of Italian sonnets were established by Guittone d'Arezzo (1235-1294), who wrote nearly 300 of them himself. The most famous early sonneteer is Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374). Other Italian poets also wrote sonnets, such as Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) and Guido Cavalcanti (~1250-1300).
British Sonnets
For details, see: Shakespeare's Sonnets
After the Italian sonnets were introduced to England, their structure changed. The British category is divided into 3 paragraphs and four sentences plus the last two sentences. The last two sentences are usually very different from the previous ones, more so than the ninth sentence of the Italian type. Common English sonnet rhyme cards are a-b-a-b, c-d-c-d, e-f-e-f, g-g, or a-b-a-b, b-c-b-c, c-d-c-d, e-e.