How Do You Write A Shakespearean Sonnet?
Although modern poetry does not have to take any rigid form, many people still like the structure and music of rhymed verse. If you are new to writing rhymed poetry, the Shakespearean, or English Sonnet is a great place to start. It has a very intuitive and natural rhythm, but is structured enough to give your poetry some direction and focus. Familiarize yourself with the structure of the Shakespearean sonnet. Shakespearean sonnets consist of three quatrains, or groups of 4 lines, and a final couplet, or pair of rhymed lines. The rhyme structure is A-B-A-B C-D-C-D E-F-E-F G-G. So for example, if the first line ends with “boat,” the third line might end with “float.” Familiarize yourself with the poetic meter of Shakespearean sonnets. Shakespearean lines are written in what is called iambic pentameter. An iamb is a metric foot (i.e. unit) of poetry consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one. “Pentameter” means that there are 5 iambs in each line. Read a lot of Engli
