The sonnet
The sonnet came from Italy. Its invention is attributed to Iacopo da Lentini in the first half of the 13th century. A sonnet is fourteen-line poem in iambic pentameters. The Italian, or Petrarchan sonnet consists of an octave, usually rhyming ABBA ABBA, and sestet, which may rhyme CDE CDE. The English or Shakespearean sonnet is divided into three quatrains and a couplet, the poet can use quatrains to present a theme and the final couplet to draw a conclusion. Thomas Wyatt introduced the Petrarchan sonnet into England, his successor, Henry Howard introduced the one which was later used by Shakespeare, the sonnet is composed of three independent quatrains followed by a couplet.