Poetic form, also known as "English sonnet", consisting of fourteen lines in iambic pentameter rhyming ''abab cdcd efef gg''. Typically, a poet will introduce some subject in the first quatrain, develop it in the second and third, then reply to it in the final couplet.

For example:

'''Sonnet CXXXVIII'''

	 :	When my love swears that she is made of truth
	 :	I do believe her, though I know she lies,
	 :	That she might think me some untutor'd youth,
	 :	Unlearned in the world's false subtleties.

	 :	Thus vainly thinking that she thinks me young,
	 :	Although she knows my days are past the best,
	 :	Simply I credit her false speaking tongue:
	 :	On both sides thus is simple truth suppress'd.

	 :	But wherefore says she not she is unjust?
	 :	And wherefore say not I that I am old?      
	 :	O, love's best habit is in seeming trust,   
	 :	And age in love loves not to have years told:

		 :	Therefore I lie with her and she with me,       
		 :	And in our faults by lies we flatter'd be.

			 :	''WilliamShakespeare''

This is somewhat similar to the Japanese RenGa form, where a series of poems are linked together, starting with a 5/7/5 syllable poem, followed by a 7/7 syllable poem, replied to by a 5/7/5 poem. This last is the origin of the HaiKu form.

Compare to PetrarchanSonnet.

The term ''sonnet'' came into English via Italian from the Provençal ''sonet,'' a little poem, from ''son'' song, from Latin ''sonus'' a sound.