A sonnet contains 14 lines, arraigned with 8 lines in the rhyming patter of a b b a, a b b a, and six lines of c d c d c d . Scholars believe the form originally came from Italian and “sonnet” meant little song. The English sonnet is also written in iambic pentameter – da dum, da dum, da dum, da dum, da dum.
Some outstanding examples:
Sonnet 27 by Williamn Shakespeare
Sonnet 30 by Edna St. Vincent Millay
Sonnet 29 by Edna St. Vincent Millay
What My Lips Have Kissed . . . by Edna St. Vincent Millay
One Art by Eliazbeth Bishop (in the Villanelle form)
Theory by Dorothy Parker
Summons by Robert Francis 