sonnet
/ˈsɒnɪt
/noun
A poem of fourteen lines using any of a number of formal rhyme schemes, in English typically having ten syllables per line.Most of the poems employ the forms of the sonnet, rhymed couplets, and ballad stanzas, and most were composed while Cullen was an undergraduate at New York University....
- The poems being compared are sonnets, and this formal choice deserves attention.
- And unlike the elegies the sonnets are predominantly poems of invocation, apostrophe and direct address, he writes.
verb (sonnets, sonneting, sonneted) [no object] archaic
1Compose sonnets: and in delightful Tones sit sonneting...
- And in delightful tones sit sonneting: Who when they mention you in their sweet lays, May th' angler eccho your deserved praise.
1.1 [with object] Celebrate in a sonnet: he sonneted his hostess now...
- Like Petrarch, he sonnetted his mistress, both before and after death.
Origin
Mid 16th century: from French, or from Italian sonetto, diminutive of suono 'a sound'.