Sonnet 101
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 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.
I. Learning the rhyme scheme.
When writing a sonnet, lines 1 and 3 rhyme as do lines 2 and 4. The pattern of the rhyme would be in the style of ABAB except with the last 2 lines, which would be in the style of GG. For example, the full rhyming style for a sonnet would be:
B (temperate)
A (May)
B (date)
C (shines)
D (dimmed)
C (declines)
D (untrimmed)
E (fade)
F (ow'st)
E (shade)
F (grow'st)
G (see)
G (thee)
II. Learning the Iambic Pentameter
An “iamb” is two syllables. The first syllable is un-stressed, and the second syllable is stressed or emphasized. When the two syllables are spoken out loud, they sound like a fall and rise.
Many single words are iambic. Say the following words out loud and listen to how you naturally emphasize or stress the first syllable of the word and then how you naturally let the second syllable fall.
forgive
myself
explain
begin
The list above would look as follows:
forGIVE
mySELF
exPLAIN
beGIN
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.
SomeTIMES 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.
or part of one word plus part of another word, as in the first line: TEENTH glass
but an iamb is always two syllables with the second syllable LOUDER than the first.
To make it a little bit more easy to understand, the Iambic pentameter consist of only 10 syllables. For example:
2 4 6 8 10
For example:
Duh Dum | Duh Dum | Duh Dum| Duh Dum | Duh Dum
Here is an example of a word that may be too big to use:
Dis | ad | van | ta | geous
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
When it comes to iambic words, the opposite is called a trochaic word. A trochee is just a backward iamb, the stressed syllable comes first, followed by an unstressed syllable.
Iambic words are far less common in English than are trochaic words (examples of some trochaic words include SONnet and Iamb).
III. Fourteen Lines
IV. The Turn or “Volta”
Placing a volta in a sonnet is the most difficult part for many people.
To help visualize a volta or turn in your sonnet, think of this:
When you are walking through a field, you may at some point decide to change direction by turning.
You might turn one small degree from your previous direction, or you might turn all the way around, 180 degrees and head in the opposite direction. You may do the same thing in a sonnet. Where the turn comes in the sonnet also sometimes depends on what type of sonnet you are attempting to write. In a Shakespearean sonnet the turn usually comes at the ninth line.
An easy example of a turning point would be, lines 1-8 ask a question or series of questions and lines 9-14 answer the question or questions.
The turn might be in the theme of the poem, the sound of the poem, the emphasis of the message or image of the poem. Or, like the blank-verse sonnet, you may choose to consciously omit the volta. However, if you decide to omit the volta, you should do it with purpose and not just to avoid the work of putting a turn in your sonnet.
In our example sonnet, the sonnet writer spends the first 8 lines of the sonnet telling us some of the reasons he wants to live, but then he turns from all of that and in the last 6 lines of the sonnet he confesses that his last moments are spent doing none of these things, but rather he spends them in writing a sonnet.
V. Sonnet
Everything about the sonnet lends itself to music: the rhymes, the rhythm of the iambic pentameter, the volta.
Perhaps the simplest way to write a sonnet is to read a few sonnets and mimic what you like about them. After a few sonnets written in this fashion, you will find that the iambic pentameter and rhyme structure come easy to you.
Shakespearean Sonnet
Since the Shakespearean sonnet is probably the best known and most written type of sonnet, I’ll say a little bit more about it here.
A Shakespearean sonnet, like most sonnets, is written in iambic pentameter. Each line is 10 syllables long. The rhythm of each line, as discussed above, should be like this:
Line 2 rhymes with line 4
Line 3 rhymes with line 1
Line 4 rhymes with line 2
Line 5 rhymes with line 7
Line 6 rhymes with line 8
Line 7 rhymes with line 5
Line 8 rhymes with line 6
Line 9 rhymes with line 11
Line 10 rhymes with line 12
Line 11 rhymes with line 9
Line 12 rhymes with line 10
Line 13 rhymes with line 14
Line 14 rhymes with line 13
An easy example of a turning point would be, lines 1-8 ask a question or series of questions and lines 9-14 answer the question or questions.