Videotape of Fighting Swans, Boston Public Gardens

The English (or Shakespearean) Sonnet The 14-line rhyme pattern could be either abab cdcd efef gg or abba cddc effe gg (like the poem below).

A white, reptilian, synesthetic hiss, a The frantic slither of reply. Sudden b Dart of yellow beaks: the necks entwine b Stumbling on the asphalt garden path, a Graceless as drunks below the necks, they waddle, c Trumpet, don’t relent, not even when the cop d Dismounts to wrench the necks apart. Traffic stops d To watch, the trio lodged against a trash barrel. c Wild swans: but hardly those from Coole. e Not symbolist, not Freudian, just set to kill f Or be killed. So now it’s the cop who takes control, f Unsheathing the rubber-tipped cudgel. e Nothing allegorical, just motion too quick to follow g And blow after blow after blow after blow. g

—David Wojahn

The Italian (or Petrarchan) Sonnet The last six lines combines two or three rhymes in any possible order. Common patterns include: cdcdcd or cdecde.

Lucifer in Starlight

On a starred night Prince Lucifer uprose. a Tired of his dark dominion swung the fiend b Above the rolling ball in cloud part screened, b Where sinners hugged their spectre of repose. a Poor prey to his hot fit of pride were those. a And now upon his western wing he leaned, b Now his huge bulk o'er Afric's sands careened, b Now the black planet shadowed Arctic snows. a Soaring through wider zones that pricked his scars c With memory of the old revolt from Awe, d He reached a middle height, and at the stars, c Which are the brain of heaven, he looked, and sank. e Around the ancient track marched, rank on rank, e The army of unalterable law. d

—George Meredith