The poems I wish to analyse in my discussion of modern sonnets are From: Modern Love by George Meredith and If We Must Die by Claude McKay. Whilst relying on the conventions of the traditional Petrarchan and Shakespearean sonnets, each of these poems displays what I feel are the most distinguishing characteristics of a modern sonnet. Both of these traditional forms of sonnets consist of fourteen lines. The Petrarchan sonnet is formed by an octet and a sestet with the turn coming in the middle of the two, while the Shakespearean sonnet ends with a rhyming couplet that signifies the turn in the poem. They also have their own rhyming schemes. Sonnets are often love poems of a very personal nature.

Modern poets have...