Culture · 6 pages · 12 min

How a sonnet turns

A sonnet sets a pattern, then spends a turn against that pattern.

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From the opening

A sonnet turns by using its short fixed shape to set an expectation and then change the pressure of the thought before the poem ends. The fourteen lines are not just a container, because they are a sequence with a place where the argument, the image, or the attitude is expected to shift. The opening covers where the octave meets the sestet, how a couplet can reweight a poem, and why fourteen lines are not enough.

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Inside

Where the octave meets the sestet
How a couplet can reweight a poem
Why fourteen lines are not enough
When a quiet hinge still counts
Where the idea stops applying
A distinction worth keeping

Sources

The Petrarchan octave and sestet
The Shakespearean quatrains and closing couplet

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How a sonnet turns

From the opening

Inside

Sources

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