a sonnet consisting three quatrains and a concluding couplet in iambic pentameter with the rhyme pattern abab cdcd efef gg

a fourteen-line poem, each line containing ten syllables

A fourteen-line lyric poem consisting of three quatrains (four line stanza) and a concluding couplet (two rhyming lines). The Shakespearean, or English, sonnet was NOT invented by William Shakespeare, but is named for him because he is its most famous practitioner. Its rhyme scheme is abab cdcd efef gg.