The Shakespearean sonnet is perhaps the most well-known form in modern times. The form was popularized by William Shakespear and features its own unique rhyme scheme and stanza structure. The rhyme scheme of a Shakespearean sonnet is abab cdcd efef gg. Like all sonnets, the poem explores a conflict/question and an then provides an answer/response. Unlike the Petrarchan form, where the volta appears around line 9, the Volta in a Shakespearean sonnet doesn’t appear until the final couplet. This gives the poem more lines to explore the conflict and a shorter space to succinctly resolve it. Thematically, Shakespearean sonnets explore everything from love and jealousy, to beauty and mortality.
Structure:
3 quatrains and a couplet
Rhyme Scheme:
abab cdcd efef gg
Template :
(a)
(b)
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
(c)
(d)
(e)
(f)
(e)
(f)
Volta
(g)
(g)
Example:
Sands Through the Hourglass
Like sand that passes through an hourglass,
It seems that mortal life is measured thus.
We give in to this scheduled planned impasse
Believing that it’s age defining us.
But age is not a number on a scale
Where we approach the limit at the top.
For staying young at heart, we will prevail
To live our lives with no intent to stop.
With every change in life there’s a new start.
Each chapter of our lives brings something new.
Although with age comes knowledge to impart,
There also are more worldly things to do.
For in the end, we know not where or when.
So, flip the glass and start your life again.
Paul Gilliland
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