The Fourteen-Line Engine

The English (Shakespearean) sonnet follows the rhyme scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF GG — three quatrains building an argument, then a couplet delivering the turn or resolution. It is a machine for compressed thinking, forcing complex ideas into precise formal constraints.

Shakespeare achieved extraordinary variety within this rigid structure. Sonnet 18 ("Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?") celebrates beauty with generous warmth. Sonnet 130 ("My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun") mocks the conventions of love poetry.