An Introduction to Sonnets
By Coach Peralta
Sonnet Basics
 All sonnets are 14 lines long.
 Sonnets in English are written in iambic
pentameter, which means that each line has 10
syllables, alternating in an unstressed/stressed
pattern.
 Sonnets follow a predetermined rhyme scheme;
the rhyme pattern determines if the sonnet is
Petrarchan (Italian), Shakespearean, or
Spenserian.
 All sonnets are characterized by a “turn”. In
Shakespearean sonnets the turn is usually
between the twelfth and thirteenth lines. Marked
by “but,” “yet,” or “and yet.”
Shakespearean Sonnet Terms
• Key terms to know:
– Rhyme Scheme – the order of the rhyme at
the end of lines
– Quatrain – a group of four lines
– Couplet – a pair of lines
– Iamb – One short syllable followed by a
long or stressed syllable
– Pentameter – Rhythm created by five pairs
of syllables in a line (10 total)
Iambic Pentameter
• Shakespeare uses this style of rhythm in each
line.
• Ten syllables, every second syllable is stressed
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s Day?
Structure
• Shakespearian sonnets are divided by
three quatrains and a couplet
• The quatrains are like paragraphs: each
presents a different topic or focus.
• The couplet ends the poem and sums up
the message
• What does this look like?
The two major sonnet forms:
Petrarchan (Italian)
A
B
B
A
A
B
B
A
C
D
E
C
D
E
Octave (8 lines)
The TURN
Sestet (6 lines)
Shakespearean
A
B
A
B
C
D
C
D
E
F
E
F
G
G
3 quatrains
The TURN
Rhyming
Couplet
More about the turn:
• Note that at times the turn
does NOT occur in the
traditional spot. Instead of
occurring at the normal line
12-13 in this sonnet by
Shakespeare, the turn
instead occurs between lines
8-9—where you’d normally
find the turn for an Italian
sonnet.
Sonnet 29
When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featur'd like him, like him with friends possess'd,
Desiring this man's art and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;
For thy sweet love remember'd such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.
XVIII
Quatrain 1
Quatrain 2
Quatrain 3
Couplet
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
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 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 wander'st 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.
Rhyme Scheme
• Shakespearian sonnets follow the rhyme
scheme of: abab cdcd efef gg
• Each letter represents the word at the
end of the line
• What does this look like?
XVIII
Quatrain 1
Quatrain 2
Quatrain 3
Couplet
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
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 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 wander'st 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.
a
b
a
b
c
d
c
d
e
f
e
f
g
g
SONNET 130
• My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damask'd, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.