How to Create a Sonnet Poem Easy

You too can master Shakespeare's favourite form

The sonnet, when done right, is easy to read and oh so musical (sonnet after all means song). It is not, however, easy to write a sonnet. Shakespeare was the master of this form, but his style of sonnet, known as the Shakespearean sonnet or the English sonnet, is only one of many types of sonnet.

Every sonnet rhymes and has 14 lines (usually in iambic pentameter), but nearly everything else can and has been changed up.

The English sonnet is probably the easiest type to craft. Three four-line stanzas (quatrains) followed by a closing couplet makes for a relatively easy form, at least compared to the other types of sonnet. Each quatrain follows a simple rhyme scheme where the first line rhymes with the third, and the second line rhymes with the last, and new rhymes are introduced in each stanza. The rhyme scheme for the whole poem is abab cdcd efef gg. This means that you only need to find two words for each rhyme. Each line is in iambic pentameter, which means there are usually ten syllables and five "beats" (stressed syllables) per line.

Mornings
by Esther Spurrill Jones

Just five more minutes, Mom. I will awake
In time to eat and brush my teeth, I swear.
Aw, come on. Why can't I get a break?
I want to sleep some more. It isn't fair!

(Video) How to write a sonnet

Hit snooze, and snooze again just one more time;
My bed so soft and warm I hate to rise.
I hate nothing like I hate that chime
That calls me to be healthy, wealthy, and wise.

I sometimes like to rise before the sun,
To sit in quiet while all others sleep,
And not to think of what needs to be done,
To pray the peace I find then I can keep.

But most days, coffee is my closest friend.
I wish my sleep would never have to end.

You may notice that the third line in the above example, while it does have five beats, has only nine syllables, rather than ten. The first syllable in the line rather than the second is stressed. An iambic "foot" (or an iamb) generally has two syllables with the stress on the second. The first iamb in this line is only one syllable; it is missing its unstressed first half.

The Italian sonnet (sometimes called the Petrarchan sonnet) is quite a bit more difficult than the English. This is because the Italian language has a lot more rhyming words than does English. So, really: an Italian sonnet is only difficult when writing it in English. If you're writing in Italian, this form would be much easier.

The Italian sonnet has two stanzas: an octave (8 lines), rhyming abbaabba; and a sestet (6 lines), which usually rhymes cdecde or cdcdcd, though variations are allowed (in the below example, I used ccddee). This means that there can be as few as four rhymes in the entire poem. Because of this, it is vital to choose words to end the lines (especially in the octave) that have many rhymes.

My Happy Ending
by Esther Spurrill Jones

Once upon a time there was a girl
Who dreamed of romance, chivalry, and knights.
Since she was young, her mind would tend on flights
Of fancy, free from fetters of the world.
Happiness, she thought, would be a whirl-
Wind love affair, consuming days and nights;
Of deepest depths and, oh, so dizzy heights.
Instead, she found love like a bloom unfurled,

(Video) How to Write a Sonnet - Write your own Shakespearean sonnet

A slow awakening like spring's return.
Before she knew what happened, she would yearn
To be with him each moment of each day.
She was surprised to find her soul would say,
"This is my other half, the one for me,
My happy ending I could not foresee."

Take note of the fifth and sixth lines of the above example. You'll see that the word "whirlwind" is split over both lines. This illustrates an important point when reading sonnets out loud: never pause at the end of a line unless there is punctuation (eg: a comma or period) that indicates a pause. The end of a line is not necessarily the end of a sentence — or even the end of a word.

Traditionally, there is a "turn" of sorts between the octave and the sestet (called a volta). You can see in the above example where I've described the expected fantasy of love in the octave and the reality of love in the sestet.

At first glance, a Kyrielle sonnet looks a lot like an English sonnet. But it follows a slightly different rhyme scheme (usually either aabb ccbb ddbb ab or abab cbcb dbdb ab), and the last line of each stanza is a repeating refrain. Further, each line is only eight syllables and doesn't have to follow the iambic pattern, and the closing couplet is usually made up of the first and last lines of the first quatrain.

Embrace the Darkness
by Esther Spurrill Jones

Welcome to the time of year when
Spirits wander in broad daylight,
We all embrace the darkness, and
Magic thrills us all day and night.

The sun is losing all his hold;
He no longer has any right
To prevail o'er all as of old.
Magic thrills us all day and night.

We glory in macabre and grim,
In spooky and weird we delight.
Cobwebs, spiders — ghoulish is "in."
Magic thrills us all day and night.

(Video) How to Write a Sonnet

Welcome to the time of year when
Magic thrills us all day and night.

You may notice that I rhymed "when" with "and" and "grim" with "in." These are not "true" rhymes, but "near" rhymes, and I did this because, as I said in my previous piece, "How to Write a Poem", meaning always trumps rhyme.

The most difficult type of sonnet I have attempted is the shadow sonnet. This type follows any sonnet style with one deviation: the first and last word of each line is the same word or homophones. This creates the "shadow" effect. I've only attempted this sonnet variation once, and it was quite a challenge.

No Matter How Dark
by Esther Spurrill Jones

Shadows lengthen as the year ends. Shadows
Creep closer and closer. As the light fades, they creep.
Snows are coming. Cold and wind and snows
Sleep for now, awaiting our long winter sleep.

Dark looks like to be winning the war. Dark
Swells and spreads, growing like ocean swells.
Spark a flame in my heart — a tiny spark
Spells death to the dark; so small, yet they are magic spells.

Light is fading. And yet, my heart is light;
I'm not alone — I have you to hold, and I'm
Right where I should be, and everything is all right.
Rhyme with me, for you are my perfect rhyme.

You gave me a reason to live forever with you,
To be in the light, no matter how dark — to be two.

(Video) How to Write a Shakespearean Sonnet - Top Tips

I don't think this is one of my best poems, but I am happy with it as a first attempt in such a difficult form. If I were to write more shadow sonnets, I would expect each subsequent one to be better. As in everything, the more you practice, the better you get.

A French sonnet follows the same pattern as an Italian sonnet, but has only twelve syllables per line and the sestet opens with a rhyming couplet. The last four lines are usually rhymed dede but variations such as dccd or deed are valid as well. I have not written one of these, but the example I found on Shadow Poetry appears to be in trochaic pentameter rather than iambic. Trochaic is the opposite of iambic with the stress on the first syllable of each two-syllable foot.

Edmund Spenser's variation on the sonnet (the Spenserian sonnet) is sort of a hybrid between the English and Italian forms. He lays it out with an octave rhyming ababbcbc and a sestet rhyming cdcdee. However the same poem could easily be broken up into four quatrains and a couplet: abab bcbc cdcd ee.

Don't be frightened off by the difficulty inherent in writing a sonnet. If you want to try this form, just do it. And don't be discouraged if your first few attempts are clunky and uninspired. We all stumbled when we first tried to walk, and this is more like learning how to ballroom dance. Keep at it, and soon you'll be waltzing across the room.

Learn how to write other poetry forms!

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(Video) How to Write A Sonnet | I wrote a poem about my cat!

FAQs

How to Write a Sonnet? ›

To write a sonnet, make each line 10 syllables long and follow the rhythm of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. Then, arrange the lines into 3 stanzas of 4 lines and end with a 2 line stanza. The quatrains should follow an ABAB rhyme scheme, and the last two lines should rhyme as well.

What are the 7 steps to writing a sonnet poem? ›

What is the easiest sonnet to write? ›

The Shakespearean sonnet is the easiest sonnet to write. It consists of three quatrains and a couplet. The first stanza has the rhyme scheme of "a-b-a-b," while the rhyme scheme for second stanza is "c-d-c-d." The third stanza's rhyme scheme is "e-f-e-f," and for the couplet, it is "g-g."

How sonnet is written? ›

In the Shakespearean or English sonnet, each line is 10 syllables long written in iambic pentameter. The structure can be divided into three quatrains (four-line stanzas) plus a final rhyming couplet (two-line stanza). The Shakespearean sonnet rhyme scheme is abab cdcd efef gg.

What 3 things make a sonnet? ›

Writing a traditional sonnet requires 14 lines of iambic pentameter. Your sonnet can be arranged as a whole or broken up into three quatrains followed, followed by a two-line coda—or an octave followed by a sestet.

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