Videotape of Fighting Swans, Boston Public Gardens

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

Videotape of Fighting Swans, Boston Public Gardens

A white, reptilian, synesthetic hiss, a

The frantic slither of reply. Suddenb

Dart of yellow beaks: the necks entwineb

Stumbling on the asphalt garden path, a

Graceless as drunks below the necks, they waddle, c

Trumpet, don’t relent, not even when the copd

Dismounts to wrench the necks apart. Traffic stopsd

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 killf

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 followg

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 fiendb
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 scarsc
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