Shakespeare was such an amazing sonneteer that there is actually a type of sonnet today that we refer to as a "Shakespearean Sonnet"! Even though Shakespeare isn't the inventor of the Shakespearean sonnet, he was certainly the master of this kind of poem. Quite simply, a Shakespearean sonnet contains fourteen lines of iambic pentameter. It has three quatrains (four lines each) and a final rhyming couplet (of two lines). Therefore, the rhyme scheme is always abab cdcd efef gg. Most often a problem is presented in the first 12 lines or so with a solution following by the end of the poem.
During the Elizabethan period, writing groups of sonnets with similar themes (called a "sonnet sequence") became very popular. Shakespeare wrote the best of these sonnet sequences, in my opinion. His contained a full 154 sonnets. They focus on a handsome young man, a rival poet, and sometimes even a "dark lady." These subjects often cause scholars to disagree upon the truth behind Shakespeare's life and sexuality.
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