<P> When English sonnets were introduced by Thomas Wyatt ( 1503 -- 1542 ) in the early 16th century , his sonnets and those of his contemporary the Earl of Surrey were chiefly translations from the Italian of Petrarch and the French of Ronsard and others . While Wyatt introduced the sonnet into English , it was Surrey who developed the rhyme scheme -- abab cdcd efef gg -- which now characterizes the English sonnet . Having previously circulated in manuscripts only , both poets ' sonnets were first published in Richard Tottel 's Songes and Sonnetts , better known as Tottel 's Miscellany ( 1557 ) . </P>
when was the sonnet introduced in england and by whom
the early 16th century Thomas Wyatt