Why don't the Shakespearean sonnets have names?

Sonnets are so short that they are practically a title unto themselves. Further, they’re in a very rigorous form; adding more words to them would throw off the balance of the form. read more

Two kinds of sonnets have been most common in English poetry, and they take their names from the greatest poets to utilize them: the Petrarchan sonnet and the Shakespearean sonnet. The Petrarchan sonnet is divided into two main parts, called the octave and the sestet. read more

The Quarto would have lapsed into obscurity for the remainder of the seventeenth century had it not been for the publication of a second edition of Shakespeare's sonnets, brought out by John Benson in 1640. read more