Home › Glossary › Letter M

Mourning sonnet

Form
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A sonnet form used to express grief, loss, or remembrance, often adapting Petrarchan or Shakespearean structures.

Detailed Definition
Mourning sonnet is a fourteen-line poem that adapts the sonnet form to express grief, typically subverting its traditional resolution or volta to reflect unresolved loss; it may retain rhyme and meter but infuse them with dissonance, fragmentation, or unanswered questions to honor the persistence of sorrow.
Example
Example in poetry:
A sonnet ending: “And though you’re gone, the ache remains— / no turn, no peace, just endless rain”; “Fourteen lines to hold your absence— / no resolution, only trace”; Shakespearean structure with unresolved couplet: “I write, but words are empty air”
Additional Notes
A mourning sonnet adapts the 14-line form to express personal or collective grief, often subverting traditional volta or rhyme to reflect emotional disarray or unresolved loss.
Also Known As
Grief sonnet sorrow sonnet bereavement fourteen-liner tearful sonnet Elegiac sonnet Grief fourteen-liner Lament sonnet
Skip to main content