English Poetry - What is a sonnet

A Shakespearean, or English, sonnet consists of 14 lines, each line containing ten syllables and written in iambic pentameter, in which a pattern of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable is repeated five times.  It dates back to the 16th Century - 1500's.

The rhyme scheme in a Shakespearean sonnet is:

Alternating line rhyme (every second line rhymes) and then the last two lines (13 & 14 rhyme).

Line 1 and line 3 rhyme, Line 2 and line 4 rhyme - line 5 and 7 rhyme, line 6 and 8 rhyme - Line 9 and line 11 rhyme and line10 and line 12 rhyme, line 13 and 14 rhyme.

Another way of saying this is to refer to the lines of the sonnet alphabetically:
a-b-a-b, c-d-c-d, e-f-e-f, g-g; i.e. the last two lines are a rhyming couplet.







Traditionally, English poets employ iambic pentameter when writing sonnets, but not all English sonnets have the same metrical structure.

Basically "Iambic Pentameter" is the way we speak in the English language.  It has a steady beat of long and short syllables and in poetry such as a sonnet there are 10 syllables in each line.  It creates a rhythm and flow to the poem and it makes it easier to recite.  People say that it goes along side a person heart beat and so you FEEL the poem because of its structure.

EG:

If mu- / -sic be / the food / of love, / play on

Is this / a dag- / -ger I / see be- / fore me?

Source:  

http://shakespeare.about.com/od/shakespeareslanguage/a/i_pentameter.htm

Here is another youtube that discusses iambic pentameter



Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonnet
http://www.eliteskills.com/analysis_poetry/The_Kraken_by_Alfred_Lord_Tennyson_analysis.php 


Here are some sites you can look at about Sonnets and Iambic Pentameter:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/what-is-iambic-pentameter/9891.html  This has a whole class tapping out a phrase to fit into the beat of iambic pentameter (Short-long short-long,short-long, short-long, short-long).
http://www.types-of-poetry.org.uk/70-iambic-pentameter.htm
http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/writing-a-sonnet.html
http://www.sonnets.org/basicforms.htm
http://poetry.about.com/od/poeticforms/g/sonnet.htm
http://poetry.about.com/od/poeticforms/g/sonnet.htm


Prose
http://shakespeare.about.com/od/shakespeareslanguage/a/prose.htm
http://shakespeare.about.com/od/muchado/a/muchado_guide.htm