Sonnet This, and Sonnet That...

"Everyone should write at least one sonnet in a lifetime."
- Conrad Geller

As I have read, there are really only two basic guidelines for a 'traditional' sonnet:

A. There are 14 lines.

B. The poet introduces at least one volta (or a jump or shift in direction of the emotions or thought), usually somewhat after the middle of the Sonnet.

There are then two distinct style of Sonnet: Italian and English.

The Italian Sonnets-

Often referred to as "Petrearchan" Sonnets, were is existance before the now more popular 'English' Sonnet. Apparently, they are usually written with a long line of five beats (iambic pentameter), and use 'envelop rhyme'. Some believe it may have developed from the sestina. However, as I am unable to read or understand italian, I can't personally discuss an Italian poets rhythmatic schemes.

The following is an English translation of a Petrach sonnet:

Soleasi Nel Mio Cor
She ruled in beauty o'er this heart of mine,
A noble lady in a humble home,
And now her time for heavenly bliss has come,
'Tis I am mortal proved, and she divine.
The soul that all its blessings must resign,
And love whose light no more on earth finds room,
Might rend the rocks with pity for their doom,
Yet none their sorrows can in words enshrine;
They weep within my heart; and ears are deaf
Save mine alone, and I am crushed with care,
And naught remains to me save mournful breath.
Assuredly but dust and shade we are,
Assuredly desire is blind and brief,
Assuredly its hope but ends in death.

Translated by Thomas Wentworth Higginson

The English Sonnets-

Often referred to as "Shakespearean" Sonnets, developed from the Italian sonnet. Apparently they use 'alternating rhymes' and the number of rhymes is 7 and concludes with a rhymed couplet.

The following is one of the most famous pieces by the father of English sonnets:

Sonnet XVIII

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

And summer's lease hath all too short a date:

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,

And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;

And every fair from fair sometime declines,

By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;

But thy eternal summer shall not fade

Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;

Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,

When in eternal lines to time thou growest:

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,

So long lives this and this gives life to thee. by William Shakespeare