The sonnet is a fourteen-line rhyming form of lyric poetry. There are two major variations of the form: the Petrarchan (or Italian) sonnet, and the Shakespearean (or English) sonnet.

If you want to write formal poetry, it's best to start by reading the form you want to write. Shakespeare wrote numerous sonnets, which are easy to find online or printed.

More recently, Vikram Seth has written a novel, The Golden Gate, as a sonnet sequence, which I recommend: it's in modern language, and it isn't primarily love poetry, which can give an interesting perspective on the sonnet's potential in our time. The rhyme scheme isn't Shakespeare's typical scheme, but it does show the English line patterns.

The Shakespearean sonnet has fourteen lines, divided into three quatrains (a group of four lines) and a closing couplet. The meter is often iambic pentameter, although it may be another regular meter. The rhyme scheme is: abab cdcd efef gg

In a Petrarchan sonnet, the first eight lines pose a question or a problem, and the last six answer it. In a Shakespearean sonnet, this pattern is not so definite. Often, the three quatrains develop the particulars of the theme; and then the couplet summarizes the theme, restates it from a different perspective, or turns it around.

Iambic pentameter is the most common meter in English poetry. It's a five-beat line where the unstressed syllables lead the stressed syllables, like so:

da dum da dum da dum da dum da dum

Shakespeare's Sonnet #3

Here three quatrains develop, in detail, the idea that the man addressed will grow old, and his lineage will end if he fails to get an heir; the last two lines summarize it.

Quatrain 1
a Look in thy glass and tell the face thou viewest,
b Now is the time that face should form another,
a Whose fresh repair if now thou not renewest,
b Thou dost beguile the world, unbless some mother.

Quatrain 2
c For where is she so fair whose uneared womb
d Disdains the tillage of thy husbandry?
c Or who is he so fond will be the tomb,
d Of his self-love to stop posterity?

Quatrain 3
e Thou art thy mother's glass and she in thee
f Calls back the lovely April of her prime,
e So thou through windows of thine age shalt see,
f Despite of wrinkles this thy golden time.

The Summary Couplet
g But if thou live remembered not to be,
g Die single and thine image dies with thee.

The base rhythm in this poem is iambic pentameter, but it isn't perfectly regular. Perfect regularity is rare, and often not considered desirable in a long poem; the poet needs to make sure that the poem still sounds good wherever it departs from the usual meter. As is often the case, there are places where which syllable should be stressed is open to question.

Other poets have written sonnets that alter Shakespeare's form, most often by varying the rhyme scheme. For instance, Edmund Spenser wrote sonnets with the following rhyme scheme:

abab bcbc cdcd ee

Here the even rhyme of one quatrain becomes the odd rhyme of the next.

Vikram Seth's is abab ccdd effe gg.

Writing the Poem

1. Decide what you want to say. The English-style sonnet lends itself to a broader range of ideas than the Italian, since there's less emphasis on having the end answer or resolve an issue raised at the beginning.
2. Write.
3. Set the poem aside until you can come back to it with fresh eyes.
4. Reread it. Mark any part that isn't clear for revision. Any place where you stumble over the rhythm probably needs revising. Also flag any imagery that doesn't raise sensory impressions, and any lines that fall flat, that lack force or dramatic power.

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