Poetry

===Sonnet===
{{Main|Sonnet}}
[[File:William Shakespeare by John Taylor, edited.jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[William Shakespeare]]]]
Among the most common forms of poetry, popular from the [[Late Middle Ages]] on, is the sonnet, which by the 13th century had become standardized as fourteen lines following a set rhyme scheme and logical structure. By the 14th century and the [[Italian Renaissance]], the form had further crystallized under the pen of [[Petrarch]], whose sonnets were translated in the 16th century by [[Thomas Wyatt (poet)|Sir Thomas Wyatt]], who is credited with introducing the sonnet form into English literature.<ref>{{Harvnb|Corn|1997|p=94}}</ref> A traditional Italian or [[Petrarchan sonnet]] follows the rhyme scheme ''ABBA, ABBA, CDECDE'', though some variation, perhaps the most common being CDCDCD, especially within the final six lines (or ''sestet''), is common.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Minta |first=Stephen |url=https://archive.org/details/petrarchpetrarch0000mint/page/15 |title=Petrarch and Petrarchism |publisher=Manchester University Press |year=1980 |isbn=978-0-7190-0748-4 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/petrarchpetrarch0000mint/page/15 15–17]}}</ref> The [[English sonnet|English (or Shakespearean) sonnet]] follows the rhyme scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF GG, introducing a third [[quatrain]] (grouping of four lines), a final [[couplet]], and a greater amount of variety in rhyme than is usually found in its Italian predecessors. By convention, sonnets in English typically use [[iambic pentameter]], while in the [[Romance languages]], the [[hendecasyllable]] and [[Alexandrine]] are the most widely used meters.

Sonnets of all types often make use of a ''volta'', or "turn," a point in the poem at which an idea is turned on its head, a question is answered (or introduced), or the subject matter is further complicated. This ''volta'' can often take the form of a "but" statement contradicting or complicating the content of the earlier lines. In the Petrarchan sonnet, the turn tends to fall around the division between the first two quatrains and the sestet, while English sonnets usually place it at or near the beginning of the closing couplet.

[[File:Carol Ann Duffy (cropped).jpg|thumb|upright|[[Carol Ann Duffy]]]]
Sonnets are particularly associated with high poetic diction, vivid imagery, and romantic love, largely due to the influence of Petrarch as well as of early English practitioners such as [[Edmund Spenser]] (who gave his name to the [[Spenserian sonnet]]), [[Michael Drayton]], and Shakespeare, whose [[Shakespeare's sonnets|sonnets]] are among the most famous in English poetry, with twenty being included in the ''[[Oxford Book of English Verse]]''.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Oxford Book of English Verse |title-link=Oxford Book of English Verse |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1900 |editor-last=Quiller-Couch |editor-first=Arthur}}</ref> However, the twists and turns associated with the ''volta'' allow for a logical flexibility applicable to many subjects.<ref>{{Harvnb|Fussell|1965|pp=119–133}}</ref> Poets from the earliest centuries of the sonnet to the present have used the form to address topics related to politics ([[John Milton]], [[Percy Bysshe Shelley]], [[Claude McKay]]), theology ([[John Donne]], [[Gerard Manley Hopkins]]), war ([[Wilfred Owen]], [[e.e. cummings]]), and gender and sexuality ([[Carol Ann Duffy]]). Further, postmodern authors such as [[Ted Berrigan]] and [[John Berryman]] have challenged the traditional definitions of the sonnet form, rendering entire sequences of "sonnets" that often lack rhyme, a clear logical progression, or even a consistent count of fourteen lines.