| Term | Definition |
| sonnet | a fourteen line lyric poem one or several rhyme schemes |
| shakespearean sonnet | 3 quatrain followed by a couplet |
| spenserian sonnet | 3 quatrain followed by a couplet links quatrains abab bcbc cdcd ee |
| italian sonnet | divided into two parts - eight line octave abbabba and a six line sestet with cdecde or cdcdcd |
| couplet | summation of the situation |
| quatrain | express related ideas three four line units |
| sestet | six line rhyme scheme cdecde or cdcdcd the last six line of italian |
| octave | eight line rhyme scheme abbabba first eight lines of italian |