Shakespearean (English) sonnet

Shakespearan or English sonnet is defined as the variation of the sonnet form that Shakespeare used comprised of three quatrains and a concluding couplet, rhyming abab cdcd efef gg (although others had used it before him). This different sonnet structure allows for more space to be devoted to the buildup of a subject or problem than the Italian/Petrarchan form, and is followed by just two lines to conclude or resolve the poem in a rhyming couplet. (Shakespearean sonnet 1)

The 154 sonnets of Shakespeare’s Sonnets are often breath-taking, sometimes disturbing and sometimes puzzling and elusive in their meanings. As sonnets, their main concern is ‘love’, but they also reflect upon time, change, aging, lust, absence, infidelity and the problematic gap between ideal and reality when it comes to the person you love. Even after 400 years, ‘what are Shakespeare’s sonnets about?’ and ‘how are we to read them?’ are still central and unresolved questions. (Shakespearean sonnet 2)

Examples:

Sonnet 129

Th' expense of spirit in a waste of shame 

Is lust in action; and till action, lust 

Is perjured, murd'rous, bloody, full of blame, 

Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust, 

Enjoyed no sooner but despisèd straight, 

Past reason hunted; and, no sooner had 

Past reason hated as a swallowed bait 

On purpose laid to make the taker mad; 

Mad in pursuit and in possession so, 

Had, having, and in quest to have, extreme; 

A bliss in proof and proved, a very woe; 

Before, a joy proposed; behind, a dream. 

All this the world well knows; yet none knows well 

To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell.

• Shakespeare used sonnet also in his dialogues e.g. in Romeo and Juliet (5:53 - 8:06):