How to-18: "How to Write a Sonnet"

How to Write a Sonnet

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So, you may not be the next Shakespeare. But that doesn't mean you can't write a great sonnet. This page will teach you the way to become a respectable sonneteer.

Steps

1. Choose your style of sonnet. The two most common kinds of sonnet are the Petrarchan (Italian) sonnet and the Shakespearean (English) sonnet. Note that the Petrarchan consists of quatrains (the octave) and a closing sestet in the pattern ABBA ABBA CDE CDE. The letters represent a rhyme (i.e., a's should rhyme with a's and b's should rhyme with b's). The Shakespearean style is two unique quatrains followed by two like and one unlike couplet: ABAB CDCD EF EF GG. However, it can also be quatrains and a couplet. In The Art of Shakespeare's Sonnets, Helen Vendler describes it as Q1, Q2, Q3, and C. The structure is essentially the same, though, with the couplet being the finisher.
   
2. Write your lines in iambic pentameter. This is where every other syllable is stressed, so that each line ends with a strong rhyme. There are also ten syllables in each line, five of which have emphasis (pentameter). The ninth line of the sonnet (Shakespearean/Italian style) usually has a turn or a change of tone)
   
3. Keep writing! It will probably take you a few drafts to be happy with your sonnet, but don't get discouraged. Keep the trusty thesaurus by your side and you'll be fine.
   

Tips

• Don't feel that it is necessary to stay within the strict patterns of Shakespearean and Petrarchan sonnet styles; poetry is a fluid art form, so feel free to alter the rhyme scheme or shape of a sonnet to suit your vision. For example, "Sonnet 145" was in tetrameter.
  
• Read other poets' sonnets for examples and inspiration. Many poets have written in this style, including Shakespeare, Elizabeth Barret Browning, William Wordsworth, John Milton, P. B. Shelley, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Pablo Neruda, and more.
  
• Try reading every other syllable louder and harder; it makes it much easier to make a sonnet.
  
• If you can't think of something to write about, don't freak. Look around you, see if anything that you are looking at can spark an idea. You can find poetry in anything!
  

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