A Shakespearean Sonnet
A traditional sonnet is a poem of 14 lines. It follows a strict rhyme scheme. It is often about love.


A Shakespearean, or English, sonnet consists of 14 lines, each line containing ten syllables and written in iambic pentameter, in which a pattern of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable is repeated five times. The rhyme scheme in a Shakespearean sonnet is a-b-a-b, c-d-c-d, e-f-e-f, g-g; the last two lines are a rhyming couplet.

If you're writing the most familiar kind of sonnet, the Shakespearean, the rhyme scheme is this:

A
B
A
B
C
D
C
D
E
F
E
F
G
G


Every A rhymes with every A, every B rhymes with every B, and so forth. This type of sonnet has of three quatrains (so, four consecutive lines of verse that make up a stanza) and one couplet (two consecutive rhyming lines of verse). The structure is important. But it is not everything. A sonnet is also an argument that builds up a certain way. And how it builds up is related to its metaphors and how it moves from one metaphor to the next. In a Shakespearean sonnet, the argument builds up like this:

1st quatrain: premise/ idea is introduced
2nd quatrain: premise/ idea is expanded upon, perhaps an example given
3rd quatrain: is the 'turn' or volta, a "twist" if you will
Concluding couplet: is the "so what does it all mean" summary

(That's my take on Shakespearean sonnet form - first part is from Poetry Dances, last bit is mine as Evil Editor Eddie keeps having a good time with the notes)



For new poets, let me please explain "run on lines", which simply means the sense runs continuously from one line to the next. I've even used this between lines four and five, so it "links" the first two quatrains.

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