Word for the week: sonnet

Sonnets are fourteen-line poems, period. They exist in every line length, with every rhyme scheme imaginable, or with no rhyme scheme at all. The more or less standard sonnets, however, fall into two types: Italian and Shakepearean.

--Poetic Forms: The Sonnet
by Conrad Geller

Read a full explanation of sonnets and they're traditional forms at
http://www.writing-world.com/poetry/sonnet.shtml.