The Shakespearean sonnet is a good place to start if you're a novice sonneteer because it has the most regular and straightforward rhyme scheme and structure. So, following this pattern of alternating rhymes, we find that the last words of the first and third lines must rhyme; the second and fourth; the fifth and seventh; the sixth and eighth; and so on, ending in a final rhyming couplet. Write your lines in iambic pentameter. Iambic pentameter is a very regular meter and is one of the most common meters in English-language poetry.
Vary your meter from time to time. Although the majority of the lines in a Shakespearean sonnet should be written in iambic pentameter, the rhythm can get plodding and predictable if you use it exclusively. By varying the stress pattern slightly at key moments, you can break up the pattern and make the poem more aurally interesting for the reader, and also use the variation to draw attention to key phrases in your poem.
Follow the Shakespearean sonnet's stanzaic structure. A Shakespearean sonnet is composed of three heroic quatrains and a heroic couplet. A heroic quatrain is a group of four lines of iambic pentameter in an ABAB rhyme scheme; a heroic couplet is a group of two lines of iambic pentameter in an AA rhyme scheme. You can separate these stanzas with blank lines, or leave them all together in an unbroken poem, but the sonnet should move as a function of these discrete stanzas.
Develop your stanzas thoughtfully. Although your poem should have a single focus, each stanza of the sonnet should develop the idea further. Think of each quatrain as a little thought bubble, like a paragraph, in which you explore an element of the subject of your poem.
Each quatrain should build toward the final couplet, where you will have a turn, or a volta. The turn, which occurs in the 13th line of the Shakespearean sonnet, offers a resolution or insight into to the problem developed in the first three quatrains. It may help to examine an example, such as Shakespeare's "Sonnet 30" [5] X Research source : Quatrain 1 introduces the situation: Sometimes, when I think about the past, I regret the things and people I've lost.
This quatrain uses legal terminology to get the point across: sessions and summons. In this quatrain, he uses the language of commerce to develop the idea: cancelled woe and expenses. There is no resolution to the problem of mourning here, but there is insight into grief and loss: to think of your memory is wonderful enough to make me feel as though I never lost anything. Again, this couplet continues the imagery of commerce losses. Choose your subject matter carefully. Although you can write a Shakespearean sonnet about anything, they are traditionally love poems; you might keep this in mind if you want to write a purely traditional sonnet.
Note too that because of the top-heavy stanzaic structure of the Shakespearean sonnet, the form does not lend itself well to highly complex or abstract subjects. The turn and resolution must come quickly, in the final two lines, so choose a subject that can be easily resolved with a witty closing couplet.
If you have a more contemplative subject, a Petrarchan sonnet may lend itself better to what you want to say. Write your Shakespearean sonnet. Use a rhyming dictionary if you have trouble finding rhymes for the ends of your lines. Method 2. Use the Petrarchan sonnet's rhyme scheme. While the Shakespearean sonnet always has the exact same rhyme scheme, the Petrarchan sonnet does not have a single pattern.
Use the same iambic pentameter meter as the Shakesperean sonnet. Develop content as the Petrarchan stanzaic structure demands. Whereas the Shakespearean sonnet has a top-heavy structure of 3 quatrains and a couplet, the Petrarchan sonnet is a little more balanced, using an eight-line octave and a six-line sestet to develop the poem's subject.
As such, it's well-suited to complex issues that require a lot of room to resolve, rather than the easy, witty resolution of a Shakespearean sonnet's closing couplet. The octave introduces and presents a problem. The turn, or volta, occurs at the beginning of the sestet Line 9 ; the sestet offers new insight into the dilemma presented in the octave. The progression moves from the most revered element of society to the lowliest: from nuns, to hermits, to scholars, to manual laborers, to insects.
The turn in this sonnet actually occurs a line early, at the end of the octave. Although this is not purely traditional, poets throughout history have experimented with the form and manipulated it to their needs. You should feel free to do the same. The sestet provides insight that allows us to consider all the people and things in the octave with a deeper understanding. Write your Petrarchan sonnet. Just as you did with the Shakesperean sonnet, keep in mind the Petrarchan rhyme scheme and stanza structure, and remember to write in iambic pentameter with occasional metrical variation.
Note that, just as Wordsworth did in "Nuns Fret Not at Their Convent's Narrow Cell" by moving the volta up from the traditional ninth line to the eighth, you can manipulate the form to meet the needs of the poem you're trying to write.
The sonnet has changed in many ways throughout history, so make it work for you. An example of a Petrarchan sonnet that beautifully manipulates the form to make a point is Edna St. Millay employees the Petrarchan rhyme scheme and meter, but interrupts her lines with enjambments splitting the line in the middle of a sentence or clause and occasional disruptions of the meter to emphasize her struggle with the sonnet form itself. Method 3. Explore proportion through the curtal sonnet.
By experimenting with this form, you can explore how the ratio of the Petrarchan sonnet works within a more concise space. Consider whether or not you think anything changes in the relationship between the two halves of the poem when you transition from the full Petrarchan structure to the condensed curtal structure.
Other than the last line, the curtal sonnet is still written in iambic pentameter. Play with line breaks and fluidity using the Miltonic sonnet.
This form, developed by John Milton, also takes the Petrarchan sonnet as its basis, and is almost identical in form to it. However, the Petrarchan sonnet treats the octave and sestet as two discrete sections separated by a turn; Milton wanted to explore what happened to the Petrarchan sonnet when you rid the poem of all separations.
A treasure compared with eggs from a hen! It sure would be nice to have a pet duck— It could live in the kitchen! Then again… What if the newly-hatched bird ran amok? Now for the Petrarchan sonnet. Egg and what rich treasures it just might hold. If only this egg could hatch—Megabuck Lottery winners, step aside! Hatch, duck! Line 9 is the traditional place for the volta in an Italian sonnet. It would fly around the room!
And the cat would meow and it would quack. The final stanza of the Shakespearean sonnet is just two lines long, a rhyming couplet. And I would have to chase it with a broom. And so, I think, magic gold I must lack. Pots of gold make me wonder what the luck Of the Irish has to do with an old Egg and what rich treasures it just might hold. And the cat would meow and it would quack And I would have to chase it with a broom.
Your turn! Show me one of your sonnets on Instagram, or give me a heads-up on Twitter. Masterpiece Generator. Poem Generator We take the 'I' out of 'iambic pentameter'! Eat your heart out William Shakespeare! Please note: this generator brings in words from an external source, which can occasionally include potentially offensive content.
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