Question

What is a Sonnet?

Answer 1

Ans. A sonnet is a poem of fourteen lines. It is of two types. The first is Petrarchan or Italian type of sonnet. It is so called because it was started by Petrarch, an Italian poet. 

This type of Sonnet has two divisions. The first part is called octave, consisting of the first eight lines. The second part consisting of the six remaining lines is called the sestet. 

In the first part of the sonnet the problem is introduced and in the second the problem is solved. There is another type of sonnet called Shakespearean or English because this type of sonnet was started by Shakespeare in England. 

The problem is introduced and discussed in the three stanzas of four lines each called quatrains and it is concluded in the last two lines called a couplet.