sonnet

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Related to sonnet: Petrarchan sonnet, Shakespearean sonnet

son·net

(sŏn′ĭt)

1. A 14-line verse form often in iambic pentameter, having one of several conventional rhyme schemes and usually featuring a shift in mood or tone after the eighth or twelfth line.

2. A poem in this form.

[French or Italian sonetto (French, from Italian), from Old Provençal sonet, diminutive of son, song, from Latin sonus, a sound; see swen- in Indo-European roots.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

sonnet

(ˈsɒnɪt) prosody

(Poetry) a verse form of Italian origin consisting of 14 lines in iambic pentameter with rhymes arranged according to a fixed scheme, usually divided either into octave and sestet or, in the English form, into three quatrains and a couplet

1. (Poetry) (intr) to compose sonnets

2. (Poetry) (tr) to celebrate in a sonnet

[C16: via Italian from Old Provençal sonet a little poem, from son song, from Latin sonus a sound]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

son•net

(ˈsɒn ɪt)

n.

a poem, properly expressive of a single idea or sentiment, of 14 lines, usu. in iambic pentameter, with rhymes arranged in a fixed scheme, being in the Italian form divided into a major group of eight lines followed by a minor group of six lines and in a common English form into three quatrains followed by a couplet.

[1550–60; < Italian sonnetto < Old Provençal sonet=son poem (< Latin sonus sound¹) + -et -et]

sonnet

Past participle: sonneted
Gerund: sonneting

Imperative
sonnet
sonnet

Present
I sonnet
you sonnet
he/she/it sonnets
we sonnet
you sonnet
they sonnet

Preterite
I sonneted
you sonneted
he/she/it sonneted
we sonneted
you sonneted
they sonneted

Present Continuous
I am sonneting
you are sonneting
he/she/it is sonneting
we are sonneting
you are sonneting
they are sonneting

Present Perfect
I have sonneted
you have sonneted
he/she/it has sonneted
we have sonneted
you have sonneted
they have sonneted

Past Continuous
I was sonneting
you were sonneting
he/she/it was sonneting
we were sonneting
you were sonneting
they were sonneting

Past Perfect
I had sonneted
you had sonneted
he/she/it had sonneted
we had sonneted
you had sonneted
they had sonneted

Future
I will sonnet
you will sonnet
he/she/it will sonnet
we will sonnet
you will sonnet
they will sonnet

Future Perfect
I will have sonneted
you will have sonneted
he/she/it will have sonneted
we will have sonneted
you will have sonneted
they will have sonneted

Future Continuous
I will be sonneting
you will be sonneting
he/she/it will be sonneting
we will be sonneting
you will be sonneting
they will be sonneting

Present Perfect Continuous
I have been sonneting
you have been sonneting
he/she/it has been sonneting
we have been sonneting
you have been sonneting
they have been sonneting

Future Perfect Continuous
I will have been sonneting
you will have been sonneting
he/she/it will have been sonneting
we will have been sonneting
you will have been sonneting
they will have been sonneting

Past Perfect Continuous
I had been sonneting
you had been sonneting
he/she/it had been sonneting
we had been sonneting
you had been sonneting
they had been sonneting

Conditional
I would sonnet
you would sonnet
he/she/it would sonnet
we would sonnet
you would sonnet
they would sonnet

Past Conditional
I would have sonneted
you would have sonneted
he/she/it would have sonneted
we would have sonneted
you would have sonneted
they would have sonneted

Collins English Verb Tables © HarperCollins Publishers 2011

sonnet

A poem of 14 lines in iambic pentameter rhymed to a fixed scheme: Petrarchan—divided in both form and sense as an octave and a sestet (the rhyme scheme usually abbaabba, cdecde or cdcdcd); Miltonic—similar but without the break; English or Shakespearean—three quatrains and a couplet (abab, cdcd, efef, gg); Spencerian—three quatrains and a couplet (abab, bcbc, cdcd, ee).

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

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Noun	1.	sonnet - a verse form consisting of 14 lines with a fixed rhyme scheme poem, verse form - a composition written in metrical feet forming rhythmical lines Italian sonnet, Petrarchan sonnet - a sonnet consisting of an octave with the rhyme pattern abbaabba, followed by a sestet with the rhyme pattern cdecde or cdcdcd Elizabethan sonnet, English sonnet, Shakespearean sonnet - a sonnet consisting three quatrains and a concluding couplet in iambic pentameter with the rhyme pattern abab cdcd efef gg Spenserian sonnet - a sonnet consisting of three quatrains and a concluding couplet in iambic pentameter with the rhyme pattern abab bcbd cdcd ee
Verb	1.	sonnet - praise in a sonnet poesy, poetry, verse - literature in metrical form praise - express approval of; "The parents praised their children for their academic performance"
	2.	sonnet - compose a sonnet poesy, poetry, verse - literature in metrical form poetise, poetize, verse, versify - compose verses or put into verse; "He versified the ancient saga"

Translations

sonnet

سونيتسونيت: قَصيدة من 14 بيتا

сонет

sonet

Sonett Sonnet

σονέτο

soneto

soneto

sonett

sonetti

sonnet

szonett

sonnetta

sonetto

ソネット

sonetas

sonets

sonet

sonet

sonett

sone

сонет

十四行诗

sonnet

[ˈsɒnɪt] N → soneto m

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

sonnet

[ˈsɒnɪt] n → sonnet m

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

sonnet

n → Sonett nt; sonnet form → Sonettform f

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

sonnet

[ˈsɒnɪt] n → sonetto

sonnet

(ˈsonit) noun

a type of poem with fourteen lines. Milton's/Shakespeare's sonnets.

References in classic literature ?

The Sonnet is a poem of fourteen lines, and is perhaps the most difficult kind of poem to write.

As the sonnet is so bound about with rules, it often makes the thought which it expresses sound a little unreal.

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From Provence, Italy had taken up the style, and among the other forms for its expression, in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, had devised the poem of a single fourteen-line stanza which we call the sonnet. The whole movement had found its great master in Petrarch, who, in hundreds of poems, mostly sonnets, of perfect beauty, had sung the praises and cruelty of his nearly imaginary Laura.

Historically much the most important feature of Wyatt's experiment was the introduction of the sonnet, a very substantial service indeed; for not only did this form, like the love-theme, become by far the most popular one among English lyric poets of the next two generations, setting a fashion which was carried to an astonishing excess; but it is the only artificial form of foreign origin which has ever been really adopted and naturalized in English, and it still remains the best instrument for the terse expression of a single poetic thought.

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"Seldom we find," says Solomon Don Dunce, "Half an idea in the profoundest sonnet. Through all the flimsy things we see at once As easily as through a Naples bonnet - Trash of all trash!

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And what a charming sonnet he had sent her, with a box of violets, on her birthday!

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He opened it, and the first thing he found in it, written roughly but in a very good hand, was a sonnet, and reading it aloud that Sancho might hear it, he found that it ran as follows:

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In the first place, Rodney had written a very full account of his state of mind, which was illustrated by a sonnet, and he demanded a reconsideration of their position, which agitated Katharine more than she liked.

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Early one evening, struggling with a sonnet that twisted all awry the beauty and thought that trailed in glow and vapor through his brain, Martin was called to the telephone.

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He would never exactly reply to Philip's eager questioning, but with a merry, rather stupid laugh, hinted at a romantic amour; he quoted a few lines of Rossetti, and once showed Philip a sonnet in which passion and purple, pessimism and pathos, were packed together on the subject of a young lady called Trude.

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When not engaged in reading Virgil, Homer, or Mistral, in parks, restaurants, streets, and suchlike public places, he indited sonnets (in French) to the eyes, ears, chin, hair, and other visible perfections of a nymph called Therese, the daughter, honesty compels me to state, of a certain Madame Leonore who kept a small cafe for sailors in one of the narrowest streets of the old town.

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In such mouths I might have coupled it with an apt quotation from one of Shakespeare's sonnets:

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