How Many Lines Does a Sonnet Have? 2021

How Many Lines Does a Sonnet Have? You can find the answers to all the questions about sonnet on our website.

The sonnet is a type of poem that has been a part of the literary repertoire since the thirteenth century. Sonnets can communicate a sundry of details contained within a single thought, mood, or feeling, typically culminating in the last lines. For example: “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.” This famed opening of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “Sonnet 43” resonates as perhaps the most famous single line of sonnet poetry.

How Many Lines Does a Sonnet Have?

How Many Lines Does a Sonnet Have? A sonnet consists of 14 lines. Shakespearean sonnets are typically governed by the following rules:

• The 14 lines are divided into four subgroups
• The first three subgroups have four lines each, which makes them “quatrains,” with the second and fourth lines of each group containing rhyming words
• The sonnet then concludes with a two-line subgroup, and these two lines rhyme with each other
• There are typically ten syllables per line