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Shakespearean sonnet

shakespearean_sonnet · form · validated

Three quatrains and a couplet rhyming ABAB CDCD EFEF GG, in iambic pentameter.

Provenance

  • Source: William Shakespeare, Sonnets (1609)
  • Attribution: primary — a named author, work and year this catalogue stands behind
  • Checkability: self — decidable from the text and its parameters alone
  • Attested: codified — formulated as a rule by a tradition rather than declared by an author

Details

  • Kind: restrictive
  • Languages: en
  • Requires: tokens, phonemes, stress, syllables.heuristic
  • Deterministic: yes
  • Also known as: english sonnet
  • In other languages: Englisches Sonett (de), Sonnet anglais (fr)

Prompt hint

Write three quatrains and a closing couplet in iambic pentameter.

Parameters

Name Type Default Description
feminine_ending boolean False Whether a line may close on one extra unstressed syllable (a feminine or klingende ending) as well as on the bare metre.
unknown_rhyme string undecidable What a line ending absent from the pronouncing dictionary means: leave the pair unscored (undecidable), let it satisfy the scheme (free), or fail it (strict).

Examples

three-quatrains-and-a-couplet

en — this text satisfies the procedure.

the cat can see the moon above the tree
the dog will run across the field today
a bird can fly around the house at three
the sun will set behind the hill in may
the fox will hide beneath the fallen stone
the fish will swim beneath the frozen lake
the owl will call across the dark alone
the deer will wake before the morning break
the moon will rise and fill the sky with light
the horse will stand beside the gate so still
the stars will burn until the end of night
the mouse will hide behind the open till
the clock will mark the passing of the time
the bell will ring and slowly start to chime

Source: constructed example; regular throughout, which real sonnets rarely are

too-few-lines

en — this text does not satisfy the procedure.

the cat can see the moon above the tree
the dog will run across the field today
a bird can fly around the house at three
the sun will set behind the hill in may
the fox will hide beneath the fallen stone
the birds will sing before the break of day

Source: constructed counterexample

unknown-word-mid-line

en — this text satisfies the procedure.

blorf cat can see the moon above the tree
the dog will run across the field today
a bird can fly around the house at three
the sun will set behind the hill in may
the fox will hide beneath the fallen stone
the fish will swim beneath the frozen lake
the owl will call across the dark alone
the deer will wake before the morning break
the moon will rise and fill the sky with light
the horse will stand beside the gate so still
the stars will burn until the end of night
the mouse will hide behind the open till
the clock will mark the passing of the time
the bell will ring and slowly start to chime

Source: constructed example; an invented word reaches the stress fallback

drei-quartette-und-couplet

de — this text satisfies the procedure.

der Wandrer zieht durch jenes weite Land
der Wind bewegt die Blätter in der Nacht
das Feuer brennt und wärmt die kalte Hand
der Regen fällt und niemand hat gelacht
ein Vogel singt am Morgen auf dem Baum
die Lampe steht und gibt uns wenig Licht
ein Kind erwacht und ruft nach seinem Traum
der Bote kommt, doch bringt er Botschaft nicht
der Bauer geht am Abend nicht allein
der Mond erhebt sich über jenem Feld
die Sonne sinkt und lässt den Himmel rein
die Krone fällt und niemand ist ein Held
der Wandrer geht hinunter in das Tal
die Fenster leuchten hell im großen Saal

Source: constructed example

shakespeare-sonnet-18

en — this text does not satisfy the procedure.

Shall I compare thee to a Summers day?
Thou art more louely and more temperate:
Rough windes do shake the darling buds of Maie,
And Sommers lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heauen shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd,
And euery faire from faire some-time declines,
By chance, or natures changing course vntrim'd:
But thy eternall Sommer shall not fade,
Nor loose possession of that faire thou ow'st,
Nor shall death brag thou wandr'st in his shade,
When in eternall lines to time thou grow'st,
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long liues this, and this giues life to thee.

Source: William Shakespeare, Sonnets (1609), no. 18, based on Shake-speares Sonnets (London: Thomas Thorpe, 1609), the 1609 Quarto; original spelling, long-s normalised to s (ADR 0040 D5 — transcribed as printed, not modernised). Rejected: temperate/date is an Elizabethan rhyme this package's strict rhyme model does not accept (does_not_rhyme, ADR 0040 D3), the same pairing gives wrong_stress on "temperate" (100 vs expected 101), and three lines carrying 1609 spellings the pronouncing dictionary does not hold — "heauen", "vntrim'd", "wandr'st" — fall through to a fallback count that reads 9 syllables instead of 10 (wrong_line_length). Measured on this HEAD: score 0.9615, 5 violations.