What are the five types of sonnets?
Literary critics usually distinguish sonnets into two major
families.
A Petrarchan Sonnet has fourteen lines arranged into a group of
eight lines, followed by a group of six (an octave followed by the
sestet). A change in the point of view nearly always occurs between
the two parts, this is called the volta (Italian for 'turn').
A typical rhyme scheme for a Petrarchan sonnet is ABBA ABBA
CDECDE.
A Shakespearian sonnet also has fourteen lines, but this time
they are arranged as three groups of four (quatrains) followed by a
riming pair (couplet). The usual pattern is that an idea will be
developed through the three quatrains, then summed up in the
couplet.
Typical rhyming for a Shakespearian sonnet is ABAB CDCD EFEF
GG.
Shakespearian sonnets are more common, and more natural, in
English because they use fewer rhymes (words which rhyme together
are much rarer in English than in Spanish, French or Italian).
While these are the two main forms, there are many interesting
hybrids. John Donne's 'Terrible' sonnets have elements of both
Petrarchan and English structure, whereas Milton's sonnets use
Petrarchan rhyme patterns, but rarely have a discernible volta.
The sonnets of Shelley's 'Ode to the West Wind' are neither
Petrarchan nor Shakespearian - they are a new form. And many of
Gerard Manley Hopkins sonnets follow no rules but their own.