And some have said that once the humorous god

Resolving all such scribblers to confound,

For the short Sonnet ordered this strict bound;

Set rules for the just measure, and the time,

The easy running and alternate rhyme;

But above all, those licences denied

Which in these writings the lame sense supplied;

Forbade an useless line should find a place,

Or a repeated word appear with grace.

A faultless Sonnet, finished thus, would be