How To Write A Sonnet
Each quatrain should progress the poem as follows:
First quatrain: This should establish the subject of the sonnet.
Number of lines: 4. Rhyme Scheme: ABAB
Second quatrain: This should develop the sonnet’s theme.
Number of lines: 4. Rhyme Scheme: CDCD
Third quatrain: This should round off the sonnet’s theme.
Number of lines: 4. Rhyme Scheme: EFEF
Fourth quatrain: This should act as a conclusion to the sonnet.
Number of lines: 2. Rhyme Scheme: GG
Sonnet Characteristics
A sonnet is simply a poem written in a certain format. You can identify a sonnet if the poem has the following characteristics:
- 14 lines. All sonnets have 14 lines which can be broken down into four sections called quatrains.
- A strict rhyme scheme. The rhyme scheme of a Shakespearean sonnet is ABAB / CDCD / EFEF / GG (note the four distinct sections in the rhyme scheme).
- Written in iambic Pentameter. Sonnets are written in iambic pentameter, a poetic meter with 10 beats per line made up of alternating unstressed and stressed syllables. (Think Dr. Seuss) For example: "Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May".
- Powerful imagery
- Subject of love
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? (Sonnet 18) by William Shakespeare, 1564 - 1616
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimmed;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
Nor shall death brag thou wand’rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to Time thou grow’st.
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimmed;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
Nor shall death brag thou wand’rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to Time thou grow’st.
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.