The Origins of the English Sonnet

English audiences were accustomed to more action on the stage and back and forth dialogue in English, not long-winded monologues in Latin. It was difficult to translate those Roman plays into English while preserving that complicated Latin meter of long and short syllables. The innovation came from an English poet and nobleman named Henry Howard, the Earl of Surrey. He adopted the iambic pentameter rhythm that Chaucer had used for the Canterbury Tales.