The Shakespearean sonnet, also called the Elizabethan or English sonnet, is a sonnet comprising three quatrains and a final couplet in iambic pentameter with the rhyme scheme abab cdcd efef gg. The Elizabethan Era is the period associated with the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558 - 1603) and is often considered to be a golden age in English history. ... Royal motto (French): Dieu et mon droit (Translated: God and my right) Englands location (dark green) within the British Isles Languages English (de facto) Capital London de facto Largest city London Area – Total Ranked 1st UK 130,395 km² Population – Total (mid-2004) – Total (2001 Census) – Density Ranked 1st... Francesco Petrarca or Petrarch, one of the best-known of the early Italian sonnet writers The term sonnet is derived from the Provençal word sonet and the Italian word sonetto, both meaning little song. ... A quatrain is a poem or a stanza within a poem that consists of four lines. ... -1... A rhyme is a repetition of identical or similar sounds in two or more different words and is most often used in poetry. ...

It was derived from the older Petrarchan or Italian sonnet. Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, created early examples in the 16th century, but the form is strongly associated with William Shakespeare because of his authorship of a famed collection published in 1609 (see Shakespeare's sonnets). Most Shakespearean sonnets have ten-syllable lines, but the rule is occasionally broken. A Petrarchan sonnet, also called the Italian sonnet, is a sonnet comprising an octave and a closing sestet. ... A Petrarchan sonnet, also called the Italian sonnet, is a sonnet comprising an octave and a closing sestet. ... Henry Howard may refer to Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (1517 - January 13, 1547), an English aristocrat, and one of the founders of English Renaissance poetry. ... An Earl or Jarl was an Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian title, meaning chieftain and it referred especially to chieftains set to rule a territory in a kings stead. ... Surrey is a county in southern England, part of the South East England region and one of the Home Counties. ... (15th century - 16th century - 17th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 16th century was that century which lasted from 1501 to 1600. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... // Events April 4 – King of Spain signs an edit of expulsion of all moriscos from Spain April 9 – Spain recognizes Dutch independence May 23 - Official ratification of the Second Charter of Virginia. ... Shakespeares sonnets comprise a collection of 154 poems in sonnet form that deal with such themes as love, beauty, politics, and mortality. ...

This example, Shakespeare's Sonnet 116, illustrates the form:

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments. Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove.

O no, it is an ever fixed mark

That looks on tempests and is never shaken;

It is the star to every wand'ring barque,

Whose worth's unknown although his height be taken.

Love's not time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks

Within his bending sickle's compass come;

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,

But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

If this be error and upon me proved,

I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

See also

• Spenserian sonnet