The first and most common sonnet is the Petrarchan, or Italian. Two sonnet forms provide the models from which all other sonnets are formed: the Petrarchan and the Shakespearean. The name is taken from the Italian sonetto, which means “a little sound or song.” Traditionally, the sonnet is a fourteen-line poem written in iambic pentameter, employing one of several rhyme schemes, and adhering to a tightly structured thematic organization. The sonnet is a popular classical form that has compelled poets for centuries.
