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See also:QUATORZAIN (from Fr. quatorze, fourteen) , the See also:term used in See also:English literature, as opposed to " See also:sonnet," for a poem in fourteen rhymed See also:iambic lines closing (as a sonnet strictly never does) with a See also:couplet . The distinction was See also:long neglected, because the English poets of the 16th See also:century had failed to apprehend the true See also:form of the sonnet, and called See also:Petrarch's and other See also:Italian poets' sonnets quatorzains, and their own incorrect quatorzains sonnets . Almost all the so-called sonnets of the Elizabethan cycles, including those of See also:Shakespeare, consist of three quatrains of alternate See also:rhyme, not repeated in the successive quatrains, and the whole closes with a couplet . A more perfect example of the form could hardly be found than the following, published by See also:Michael See also:Drayton in 1602: Dear, why should you commend me to my See also:rest, When now the See also:night doth summon all to See also:sleep ? Methinks this See also:time becometh lovers best, Night was ordained together See also:friends to keep . How happy are all other living things Which though the See also:day conjoin by several See also:flight, The quiet evening yet together brings, And each returns unto his love at night, 0 See also:thou that See also:art so courteous unto all, Why should'st thou, Night, abuse me only thus, That every creature to his See also:kind dost See also:call, And yet 'tis thou dost only sever us ? Well could I wish it would be ever day, If, when night comes, you bid me go away . See also:Donne, and afterwards See also:Milton, fought against the facility and incorrectness of this form of See also:metre and adopted the Italian form of sonnet . During the 19th century, most poets of distinction prided themselves on following the strict Petrarchan See also:model of the sonnet, and particularly in avoiding the final couplet . In his most mature See also:period, however, See also:Keats returned to the See also:quatorzain, perhaps in emulation with Shakespeare; and some of his examples, such as " When I have fears," " See also:Standing aloof in See also:giant See also:ignorance," and " See also:Bright See also:Star," are the most beautiful in See also:modern literature . The " See also:Fancy in Nubibus," written by S . T . See also:Coleridge in 1819, also deserves See also:notice as a quatorzain of See also:peculiar beauty . |
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