SONNET

(Italian sonnet to) consists of fourteen rhymed verses, divided into two stanzas of four verses each, called the ‘ octave,’ and two stanzas of three verses soufiet consists oftwo quatrains, which is thePetrarchan or Italian form; but the verses may also be arranged in three quatrains of alternate rhymes clinched by couplet, which is the Shake spear i an form, or it may be in the irregular form used by Cole ridge and others. The Sonnet generally consists of one principal idea, pursued through the various antitheses of the different strophes. The lightne of the Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese languages enables their poets to expre every feeling and fancy in their sonnets but, in English, grave, dignified, and contemplative; subjects are most suitable. Among the best writers of English sonnets are Shakespeare, Milton, Drummond of Hawthorn eden, Bowles, Words worth, Ro etti and Elizabeth Barrett Browning.