Poetry have challenged the traditional definitions of the sonnet form, rendering entire sequences of "sonnets" that often lack rhyme, a clear logical progression, or even a consistent count of fourteen lines. "Shi" () Is the main type of Classical Chinese poetry. Within this form of poetry the most important variations are "folk song" styled verse ("yuefu"), "old style" verse ("gushi"), "modern style" verse ("jintishi"). In all cases, rhyming is obligatory. The Yuefu is a folk ballad or a poem written in the folk ballad style, and the number of lines and the length of the lines could be irregular. For the
Sonnet 88 This is especially clear in the context of other sonnets in the sequence that deal with a division between the poet and the young man. The poet does reserve for himself the story-telling posture ("I can set down a story"), which includes the considerable powers of poetry, powers that have been a recurring theme in the sonnets. Sonnet 88 is an English or Shakespearean sonnet, which has three quatrains, followed by a final rhyming couplet. It follows the rhyme scheme, "abab cdcd efef gg" and is composed in iambic pentameter lines, which is a poetic metre in which each line