On Sonnet Form

Some people understand the sonnet form
As standard: fourteen lines, pentameter,
Iambic, and enclosed. There is no storm
Of controversy here, no flying fur,
But arguments exist: with Shakespeare’s rhymes,
The sonnet breaks up into four small bits,
Which may reflect the tenor of the times,
Fragmented, punctuated by short fits;
Petrarch’s Italian form divides in two,
Uneven – balanced, though unevenly –
Connecting separate halves by leaping through
Into a resolution, discretely.
There’s Milton, too, and Spenser, more odd schemes
Than kings had food tasters, or Homer dreams.