Sonnet 149 metrical variant, an initial reversal: Initial reversals are potentially present in lines 3, 4, and 14, and a mid-line reversal is potentially present in line 6. The meter demands that line 2's "cruel" be pronounced as two syllables, and line 11's "defect" (although a noun) be stressed on the second syllable. Sonnet 149 Sonnet 149 is one of 154 sonnets written by the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare. It is considered a Dark Lady sonnet, as are all from 127 to 152. Sonnet 149 is an English or Shakespearean sonnet. The English sonnet has three quatrains, followed by a
Sonnet introduced, such as CDCDCD. Petrarch typically used an ABBA ABBA pattern for the octave, followed by either CDE CDE or CDC CDC rhymes in the sestet. The symmetries (ABBA vs. CDC) of these rhyme schemes have also been rendered in musical structure in the late 20th century composition "Scrivo in Vento" by Elliott Carter, inspired by Petrarch's Sonnet 212, "Beato in Sogno".) In English, both the English or Shakespearean sonnet, and the Italian Petrarchan sonnet are traditionally written in iambic pentameter. The first known sonnets in English, written by Sir Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, used the