Question

Shakespeare’s sonnets, including "Sonnet 29,” have which characteristic?

They all contain one quatrain and nine couplets.
They all contain two quatrains and five couplets.
They all contain four quatrains and no couplets.
They all contain three quatrains and a couplet.

Answer 1

A quatrain is a stanza of four lines with an alternating rhyme scheme. A couplet is a set of two lines that rhyme and are treated as a set. Shakespeare's sonnets all contain three quatrains and one couplet.

Answer 2

The correct answer is - they all contain three quatrains and a couplet.

The structure of all of Shakespeare's sonnets is the same - all of them contain three quatrains and a couplet. A quatrain is a stanza consisting of 4 lines, and a couplet contains 2 lines. So in total, a Shakespearean sonnet consists of 14 lines. The couplet is the most important part of the poem - it is the explanation and the main theme of the entire sonnet.