Henry Howard is known mainly for two reasons. First, he wrote sonnets. He is often regarded as one of the fathers of English sonnet. He introduced a new rhyme pattern for English sonnet that runs abab cdcd efef gg. Today it is called Shakespearian sonnet, but Surrey was first to use it. Second, he invented blank verse that is unrhymed iambic pentameter. This metre was later used by Thomas Kyd in drama and by John Milton in epic poems. Everyone knows blank verse from Shakespeare's works. Henry Howard used blank verse in his translations from Virgil.