Sonnet in Literature: Fourteen Lines of Argument and Desire
A detailed guide to the sonnet — Petrarchan, Shakespearean, Spenserian, form, volta, and close reading methods.
The sonnet is the most concentrated argument in literature. Fourteen lines of iambic pentameter, organized according to strict rhyme schemes, that attempt to say something true about love, beauty, mortality, faith, or the nature of poetry itself. It is a form that has attracted some of the greatest poets in every language for over seven hundred years.
The sonnet’s power comes from its constraints. The form is so small that every word must count, so structured that every turn matters. The sonnet is a pressure chamber: it takes a single idea, a single emotion, a single argument, and compresses it until it ignites.
A sonnet is a fourteen-line poem in iambic pentameter with a fixed rhyme scheme. The form originated in Italy in the thirteenth century and was brought to England in the sixteenth century, where it became one of the most important poetic forms.
A sonnet is a fourteen-line poem in iambic pentameter, organized according to a specific rhyme scheme, that develops a single idea or argument through a structured sequence of thought, typically turning (volta) at a specific point.
Petrarchan (Italian) Sonnet
Named after Francesco Petrarca (1304–1374), the Petrarchan sonnet divides into an octave (eight lines, ABBAABBA) and a sestet (six lines, CDECDE or CDCDCD). The octave presents a problem, question, or situation; the sestet responds, resolves, or complicates it. The volta (turn) occurs between the octave and the sestet.
Shakespearean (English) Sonnet
Developed by Shakespeare, this form divides into three quatrains (four lines each, ABAB CDCD EFEF) and a final couplet (two lines, GG). Each quatrain develops a different aspect of the argument; the couplet delivers a conclusion, twist, or epigram. The volta typically occurs at the couplet.
Spenserian Sonnet
Developed by Edmund Spenser, this form uses interlocking rhyme schemes (ABAB BCBC CDCD EE) that link the quatrains together, creating a more continuous flow of thought.
Petrarch established the sonnet as the dominant form of love poetry in European literature. His Canzoniere — 366 poems addressed to his idealized beloved Laura — created the conventions that would dominate love poetry for centuries: the unattainable beloved, the suffering lover, the conflict between desire and virtue.
Sir Thomas Wyatt and the Earl of Surrey brought the sonnet to England in the sixteenth century. Shakespeare transformed it, using the form not only for love poetry but for philosophical argument, political commentary, and self-examination. Milton, Wordsworth, Keats, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning continued to expand the form’s possibilities.
1. The Volta
The turn — the moment when the poem shifts direction, introduces a new idea, or reverses its previous argument. In the Petrarchan sonnet, the volta comes between the octave and sestet. In the Shakespearean, it comes at the couplet.
2. Compression
Fourteen lines. Every word must earn its place. The sonnet’s compression produces intensity and precision.
3. Argument
The sonnet is fundamentally an argument — a structured sequence of thought that moves from premise to conclusion, from question to answer, from problem to resolution.
4. The Couplet
In the Shakespearean sonnet, the final couplet is the poem’s climax — a compressed, epigrammatic statement that recontextualizes everything that came before.
“My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun; / Coral is far more red than her lips’ red…”
Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130 is a sonnet about sonnets — a systematic parody of the Petrarchan conventions that had dominated love poetry for centuries. The speaker lists all the ways his mistress fails to meet the conventional standards of beauty: her eyes are not like the sun, her lips are not like coral, her hair is not golden wires.
The couplet delivers the turn: “And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare / As any she belied with false compare.” The argument is that conventional love poetry — with its impossible comparisons and idealized descriptions — is a form of dishonesty. Real love does not need false comparisons. The sonnet’s form — the very form it parodies — becomes the vehicle for its argument.
What is a sonnet?
A fourteen-line poem in iambic pentameter with a fixed rhyme scheme.
What is the volta?
The turn — the moment in a sonnet when the poem shifts direction or introduces a new idea.
What are the main types?
Petrarchan (octave + sestet), Shakespearean (three quatrains + couplet), and Spenserian (interlocking quatrains + couplet).
The sonnet proves that constraint is not the enemy of creativity but its catalyst. The form’s limits — fourteen lines, a fixed rhyme scheme, a required turn — force the poet to think with extraordinary precision, to choose every word with care, and to find in the smallest space the largest possible meaning.
That is why the sonnet has survived for seven centuries. Not because poets are drawn to difficulty for its own sake, but because the form’s constraints produce a concentration of thought and feeling that no other form can match.