SONNETS

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The Shakespearean Sonnet A //sonnet// is a fourteen-line lyric poem, traditionally written in iambic pentameter—that is, in lines ten syllables long, with accents falling on every second syllable, as in: “Shall //I// com//pare// thee //to// a //sum//mer’s //day//?” The Shakespearean sonnet, the form of sonnet utilized throughout Shakespeare’s sequence, is divided into four parts. The first three parts are each four lines long, and are known as quatrains, rhymed ABAB, CDCD, EFEF; the fourth part is called the couplet, and is rhymed GG.