What is the name of 14-line form of poems usually associated with British playwright and poet William Shakespeare?

A sonnet is a poem generally structured in the form of 14 lines, usually iambic pentameter, that expresses a thought or idea and utilizes an established rhyme scheme. As a poetic form, the sonnet was developed by an early thirteenth century Italian poet, Giacomo da Lentini. However, it was the Renaissance Italian poet Petrarch that perfected and made this poetic literary device famous. Sonnets were adapted by Elizabethan English poets, and William Shakespeare in particular.

Shakespeare’s sonnets are composed of 14 lines, and most are divided into three quatrains and a final, concluding couplet, rhyming abab cdcd efef gg. This sonnet form and rhyme scheme is known as the ‘English’ sonnet. It first appeared in the poetry of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, who translated Italian sonnets into English as well as composing his own. Many later Renaissance English writers used this sonnet form, and Shakespeare did so particularly inventively. His sonnets vary its configurations and effects repeatedly. Shakespearean sonnets use the alternate rhymes of each quatrain to create powerful oppositions between different lines and different sections, or to develop a sense of progression across the poem. The final couplet can either provide a decisive, epigrammatic conclusion to the narrative or argument of the rest of the sonnet, or subvert it. 

Some critics argue that the Fair Youth sequence follows a story-line told by Shakespeare. Evidence that corroborates this is that the sonnets show a constant change of attitude that would seem to follow a day-by-day private journal entry. Furthermore, there is an argument that the Fair Youth sequence was written to Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton. Critics believe that Shakespeare would like him to marry and have an heir so that his beauty would live forever. The historical timeline of the procreation sonnets directly relates to William Cecil Lord Burghley and the pressure he put on Southampton to marry his granddaughter Lady Elizabeth Vere (daughter of Edward de Vere). To this day the relationship between Henry Wriothesly and Shakespeare is debated due to the fact that some believe it was romantic in nature, and not platonic. Regardless most critics agree that Shakespeare wrote this sonnet in order to convince him to produce an heir.

 

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