ETYM French, from Italian sonetto, from suono a sound, a song, from Latin sonus a sound. Related to Sound noise.
A verse form consisting of 14 lines with a fixed rhyme scheme.
Fourteen-line poem of Italian origin introduced to England by Thomas Wyatt in the form used by Petrarch (rhyming abba abba cdcdcd or cdecde) and followed by Milton and Wordsworth; Shakespeare used the form abab cdcd efef gg.
In the final couplet Shakespeare summed up the argument of the sonnet or introduced a new, perhaps contradictory, idea. The difference in the rhyme scheme of the first eight lines (the octet) and the last six (the sestet) reflected a change in mood or direction of the Petrarchan sonnet.
Ein Gedicht aus zwei Abschnitten zu je vier Versen (Quartette) u. zwei Abschnitten zu je drei Versen (Terzette). Den ersten Höhepunkt erreichte das S. bei Dante u. F. Petrarca.
1. To compose a sonnet.
2. To praise in a sonnet.