American Literature / Unit 1 AML 0018 short lesson, about 20 seconds
The Sonnet: Italian and English
Captions available
The idea
A sonnet is fourteen lines of iambic pentameter in one of two arrangements. The Italian, or Petrarchan, breaks into an octave and a sestet. The English, or Shakespearean, runs three quatrains and a closing couplet, rhyming a b a b, c d c d, e f e f, g g.
In practice
Fourteen lines, two arrangements.
Where people slip
Count the closing couplet: it settles which.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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