rimes only. The sestet, though it contains but six lines, is more
liberal in the disposition of its rimes. In the sonnet which we are
examining, the rime system of the sestet in c d d e c e--containing, as
we see, three separate rimes. In the sestet this is permissible,
provided that there is not a riming couplet at the close.

(5) Again, with reference to the rime, it will be observed that the vowel
terminals of the octave and the sestet are differentiated. Anything
approaching assonance between the two divisions is to be counted as a
defect.

(6) It is evident that there is unity both of thought and mood in this
sonnet, the sestet being differentiated from the octave, only as above
described.

(7) It is almost unnecessary to add that there is no slovenly diction,
that the language is dignified in proportion to the theme, and that there
is no obscurity or repetition in thought or phraseology.

These rules will appear to the young reader of poetry as almost
unnecessarily severe. But it must be remembered that the sonnet is
avowedly a conventional form (though in it much of the finest poetry in
our language is contained), and as such the conventional laws attaching
to all prescribed forms must be observed to win complete success.

Spenser, Shakespeare, and Milton have lent the authority of their great
names to certain distinct variations from the rigid Petrarchan type. The
peculiarity of Spenser's sonnets is that the rime of the octave overflows
into the sestet, thus marring the exquisite balance which should subsist
between the two parts, and yielding an effect of cloying sweetness.