sonnet = 'any short poem'

[Jonathan Lighter]

This is in OED:

"2. A short poem or piece of verse; in early use esp. one of a lyrical and
amatory character. Now *rare* or *Obs."*  Exx. begin in 1563 and end in
1818.

But one is not sure just how "rare" this is. It certainly wasn't "Obs."
twenty years ago when freshmen not infrequently used it as an elegant
variation of the boring old word "poem."

But to the point:

2006 Anne Hacht, ed. _Literary Themes for Students_  I (Detroit: Gale) 152:
In the following excerpt, Houston observes that sonnets such [as] "Charge of
the Light Brigade" became a bridge between historical events and individuals
during the time of the Crimean War.

That's a pedagogical publication.

JL





--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org