` Well written and informative  nice one!     I thought sonnets were supposed to be in iambic pentameter, but the article makes no mention of this. Am I mistaken?   :Yes, I was also taught that sonnets were 'supposed' to be in iambic pentameter- but remember: this is poetry, so not everybody follows the 'rules.' I'd also like to take this opportunity to mention that the poem provided as an example for Italian sonnets ``On his Being Arrived to the Age of 23`` does not follow the same rhyme scheme as stated in the description.  I know a lot of poets mess around with the last sestet, but I think that the example should reflect what the article says.  In addition, I think the article should mention that it is common for poets to play around with the rhyme scheme of the last sestet. -   The article is also incorrect in saying that hendecasyllables are the usual line for sonnets in the Romance languages. I have read sonnets only in Italian, French and English, but based on the two Romance languages of these, I can say that the Italians use the hendecasyllable line, and call it endecasyllabo, but the French, for example Baudelaire, use their usual so-called Alexandrine (Alexandrine is the formal name) for most sonnets. The Alexandrine alternates between a twelve-syllable line with a masculine ending, like ``Je te donne ces vers afin que si mon nom`` (first line of a Baudelaire sonnet) and thirteen-syllable lines with a feminine ending, like ``Abord heureusement aux Epoques lointaines`` (second line of the same Baudelaire sonnet). It's because of the difference between masculine endings (a masculine rhyme in English would be MART/TART) and feminine endings (MARTYR/TARTAR) that the feminine lines have that extra thirteenth syllable at the end. The French do have sonnets in ten-syllable lines, alternating with eleven syllable lines, but they also have sonnets in eight-syllable lines alternating with nine-syllable lines: the ``hendecasyllable`` is strictly Italian, where almost almost all the rhymes are feminine  unless there's something about Spanish sonnets I don't know.  Sorry, I didn't sign my posting about Baudelaire, French Alexandrines, and so on just above. I'm chessw.  chessw   ::Much Spanish poetry uses hendecasyllable (endecasílabo in Spanish), though Alexandrines (Alejandrinos) are also used, and of course there are also sonnets that aren't in meter (though that's much mroe modern).    The ``Bob`` and ``Wheel`` of Spencer's sonnets should be explained in this article!  == Redundancy ==  ``The form consists of three quatrains of four lines and a couplet of two lines.``  A quatrain is a four-line stanza; similarly, a couplet is two lines. I've changed this line.    == Who invented the sonnet? == Since Giacomo da Lentini from the Sicilian School is widely credited for inventing the sonnet [Segre: 1999; Migliorini: 1984; Bruni: 1983 etc], I added that to the article. His octave rhymes abab, abab (cf. Petrarch's: abba,abba). It seems certain, however, that Giacomo preceded Guittone d'Arezzo, who was inspired by the Sicilians.     == Wikipedia is not a web directory ==  So I deleted a bunch of links and they were put back. I certainly didn't mean to offend or start an edit war, but it seems to me like the links section has been growing out of control. Here is the current list with my commentary and suggested cut/no-cut status. Perhaps others could comment and then we can cut as appropriate.  * Sonnets.org : A rather amateurish looking site, but it appears to be quite thorough. *Selective Historical Bibliography on the Sonnet = Bibliographie sélective de l'histoire du sonnet  : Seems okay, but not great. Keeper, I guess *From The Sonnets and Ballate of Guido Cavalcanti Translated by Ezra Pound : Seems awfully specific  if we link to every web archive of sonnets by a famous poet, this list will rapidly grow far larger than the article. Definitely cut. *Some English Translations of Petrarch : More justifiable than the Pound poets, since Petrarch is so critical to the history of the sonnet. However, this page is a subpage of sonnets.org, which is already linked. Definitely cut. *Wyatt's Sonnets : Belongs on the page for Thomas Wyatt, not h