A Sonnet is a poem consisting of 14 lines (iambic pentameter) with a particular rhyming scheme:

Examples of a rhyming scheme:

#1) abab cdcd efef gg
#2) abba cddc effe gg
#3) abba abba cdcd cd

A Shakespearean (English) sonnet has three quatrains and a couplet, and rhymes abab cdcd efef gg.

An Italian sonnet is composed of an octave, rhyming abbaabba, and a sestet, rhyming cdecde or cdcdcd, or in some variant pattern, but with no closing couplet.

Usually, English and Italian Sonnets have 10 syllables per line, but Italian Sonnets can also have 11 syllables per line.

French sonnets follow in this same pattern, but normally have 12 syllables per line.

Example #1:

Sonnet of Demeter (Italian Sonnet)

Oh the pirate stars, they have no mercy!
Masquerading as hope they tell their lies;
Only the young can hear their lullabies.
But I am barren and I am thirsty
Since she has gone. No hope is there for me.
I will roam and curse this earth and these skies--
Death from life which Zeus sovereign denies.
My heart's ill shall the whole world's illness be

Till she is returned-- my daughter, my blood--
From the dark hand of Hades to my care.
With my tears these mortals shall know a flood
To show Poseidon's realm desert and bare.
No myrtle shall flower, no cypress bud
Till the gods release her...and my despair.

Copyright © 2000 Erica Fay

Example #2:

To (French Sonnet)

Elle est muette.  Waiting in wind towards nightfall,
dawn emerges early with purple hands, eager
for a song of mountains.  Silhouetting meager
ground, sun throws her whispy shadow across and tall.
(She had never been imprisoned or subdued
beneath his lips, hands, or eyes, which roughly tasted,
perhaps, the small of her back ere passion wasted
her soul, or planets quit orbits standing still - queued.)
Elle est muette.  Sighing under sun - coming twilight
beckons secret sentiments unspoken; verses
promised in breaths - never to be revealed; curses
against space and time for splitting the seams of night.

Fingers trace Venus in the sky - wishes are flung
and whispers are sent from tenderly silent tongue.

Copyright © 2000 Christine Ann Kelley

Example #3:

Sonnet (Italian Sonnet)

I set my soul free down the dreamers lane
Thoughts of joyful times bring my mind aflight
Moons of memories drip so lovely light
Stars above hum a tune to ease my pain
I sail a sea where kings of past did reign
Thoughts buried deep burn in the stars so bright
To see the legends only I may sight
A life of imagery that pumps in vein

As life is written in a hidden page
I soar among all the things that will fly
I'm always seeking my soul's so lost core
Sooths all of my hate and my painful rage
Sorrow from all my blood dripped tears I cry
Dreams are the peace felt in life times before

Copyright © 2000 Emily Webber