Structure
Sonnet 18 is a typical English or Shakespearean sonnet. It consists of three quatrains followed by a couplet, and has the characteristic rhyme scheme: abab cdcd efef gg. The poem carries the meaning of an Italian or Petrarchan Sonnet. Petrarchan sonnets typically discussed the love and beauty of a beloved, often an unattainable love, but not always. It also contains a volta, or shift in the poem's subject matter, beginning with the third quatrain.
| Stress | 8_ | / | 8_ | / | 8_ | / | 8_ | / | 8_ | / |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Syllable | Thou | art | more | love- | ly | and | more | temp- | pe- | rate |
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Famous quotes containing the word structure:
“Each structure and institution here was so primitive that you could at once refer it to its source; but our buildings commonly suggest neither their origin nor their purpose.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
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Time is with materials filled;
Our to-days and yesterdays
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—For the State of New Jersey, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)