sonnet
pronunciation
How to pronounce sonnet in British English:
UK [ˈsɒnɪt]
How to pronounce sonnet in American English:
US [ˈsɑːnɪt]
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- Noun:
- a verse form consisting of 14 lines with a fixed rhyme scheme
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- Verb:
- praise in a sonnet
- compose a sonnet
Word Origin
- sonnet
- sonnet: [16] A sonnet is etymologically a ‘little sound’. The word comes, via French sonnet and Italian sonetto, from Provençal sonet, a diminutive form of son ‘song’. This in turn was descended from Latin sonus ‘sound’ (source of English sound).=> sound
- sonnet (n.)
- 1557 (in title of Surrey's poems), from Middle French sonnet (1540s) or directly from Italian sonetto, literally "little song," from Old Provençal sonet "song," diminutive of son "song, sound," from Latin sonus "sound" (see sound (n.1)). Originally in English also "any short lyric poem;" precise meaning is from Italian, where Petrarch (14c.) developed a scheme of an eight-line stanza (rhymed abba abba) followed by a six-line stanza (cdecde, the Italian sestet, or cdcdcd, the Sicilian sestet). Shakespeare developed the English Sonnet for his rhyme-poor native tongue: three Sicilian quatrains followed by a heroic couplet (ababcdcdefefgg). The first stanza sets a situation or problem, and the second comments on it or resolves it.
Example
- 1. It can be a simple " thanks for the help " note or a full sonnet .
- 2. Basically in a sonnet you show two related but differing things to the reader in order to communicate something about them .
- 3. Shakespeare did not invent the english sonnet form , but he is recognized as its greatest practitioner ; therefore , the english sonnet is commonly called the shakespearean sonnet .
- 4. Not only is the english sonnet the easiest in terms of its rhyme scheme calling for only pairs of rhyming words rather than groups of 4 but it is the most flexible in terms of the placement of the volta .
- 5. Originally mixed in the nineteenth century , it became an american icon in the twentieth . Bernard de voto called the martini " the supreme american gift to world culture , " while h. l. mencken declared it " the only american invention as perfect as a sonnet . "