Here are the two most common types of sonnets written today: a. The word sonnet is derived from the Old Occitan phrase sonet meaning “little song.” Sonnets were invented by the Italian poet Giacomo da Lentini during the 1200s. Often, sonnets use iambic pentameter: five sets of unstressed syllables followed by stressed syllables for a ten-syllable line. A sonnet (pronounced son-it) is a fourteen line poem with a fixed rhyme scheme.
