Young Writers Society

Confession: I cannot recognize a sonnet when I read one.

Now that I can remedy on my own by looking it up (fourteen lines with various rhyme schemes depending on the kind of sonnet?), but that makes me wonder what else I'm missing. The only other set structure I can think up is iambic pentameter, but past those two, are there any *major* types of structure in poetry that everyone should know about?

A sonnet usually has two or three points where the tone changes. Shakespearean sonnets ask a question or address a topic in the first two lines, elaborate on it for the next ten lines, and finally answer the question and bring closure in the last two lines. The answer to the question is usually where the tone changes, such as in one sonnet where Shakespeare describes a woman who he is in love with, who is absolutely hideous. He goes on to describe how she is ugly, but then in the last two lines explains that it is because she is real without trying to hide her flaws that he loves her. He also uses his rhyme scheme to accent the shift in tone at the end, with a rhyming couplet.

Petrarch also wrote sonnets, but he used a structure of two quatrains followed by a sestet instead of Shakespeare's ababcdcdefefgg rhyme scheme. His tone changes came between the two quatrains and the sestet.

You will almost always find changes of tone in poetry that come with the rhyme scheme or between stanzas like that. It's very effective.

Also, different types of poetry, like sonnets, haikus, elegies, and sestinas usually address different things and (of course) have specific ways in which they must be written. You can look up different poetic forms, but as I understand it, sonnets usually have to do with deep contemplation on something or with love. Of course, beyond the specifics of a certain poetic form, different poets will create their own structures and rhyme schemes where they implement their tone changes and how they address their subject.

I have notes on sonnets somewhere in my lit binder, and I will, so I've heard, delve into this more next year.

Other than that... I haven't studied many structure types in class. There are a lot out there, for sure. Kagerou seems to have a lot more to say on this topic than I do! I have this link in my bookmarts, though I haven't touched it in about a year. It's interesting to study and try to find something to replicate, but sometimes writing for an exact structure just makes the writing horrible.

Unless, of course, you're a genius. You, Melja, certainly are.

Sonnets have a rhyme scheme of:
A, B, A, B, C, D, C, D, E, F, E, F, G, G.

And, as you already stated you know, they consist of fourteen lines. Iambic pentameter makes the sonnet flow well.

An example of a sonnet--this one is my favorite by far--is sonnet CIV by William Shakespeare.

William Shakespeare Sonnet CIV wrote:To me, fair friend, you never can be old,
For as you were when first your eye I eyed,
Such seems your beauty still. Three winters cold
Have from the forests shook three summers' pride,
Three beauteous springs to yellow autumn turn'd
In process of the seasons have I seen,
Three April perfumes in three hot Junes burn'd,
Since first I saw you fresh, which yet are green.
Ah, yet doth beauty, like a dial-hand,
Steal from his figure and no pace perceived;
So your sweet hue, which methinks still doth stand,
Hath motion and mine eye may be deceived:
For fear of which, hear this, thou age unbred;
Ere you were born was beauty's summer dead.

If you can notice the rhyme scheme in poetry you read, you should be able to identify sonnets.
I wrote my first one which I posted up. If you want to read it (it's not that great) then here's the link.

"Dawning"

Hope this helps!
- Summerless <3~

Its funny actually, I was listening to My Chemical Romance and i realized that one of their songs was in Iambic Pentameter. It was weird that I recognized that.
It made it sound so...smooth. :]

Iambic pentameter tends to have that smoothness because it matches the human heartbeat: Unstressed/stressed/unstressed/stressed etc.

There are many different poetic forms but here are just a few.

Sonnet: 1 stanza, 14 lines. Either Shakespearean or Petrarchan (forms as above). Typically used for love or romantic poetry.

Haiku: 1 stanza, 3 lines. In the original Japanese, the lines had the syllable count 5/7/5, but apparently the "English translation requires no exact wordage," according to Dianne Doubtfire in Creative Writing, which is nonsense to a haiku purist like me! Generally used to capture a fleeting image or moment.

Limerick: 1 stanza, 5 lines. 1st, 2nd and 5th lines rhyme with nine syllables each, 3rd and 4th rhyme with only six syllables each. Used for witty or comic purposes.

Sestina: 6 stanza, 6 lines each (36 total). The end words of each verse are repeated in a certain order in each stanza (see Wikipedia for further details). Used to capture a sense of entrapment or encirclement, owing to the circling repetition.

Sapphic stanza: 1 stanza, 3 lines + Adonic line, which is indented. This can be expanded into a Sapphic ode with several stanzas, such as Wilfred Owen's "Exposure."

Prose poem: A form of poetry written in prose "that breaks some of the normal rules associated with prose discourse, for heightened imagery or emotional effect." (Wikipedia)