How to Write a Shakespearean Sonnet

Dedicated to a mysterious 'faire youth' (certainly a man, perhaps Henry Wriothesley) they explore the same terrain as traditional sonnets dating back to Petrarch - namely, sexual desire - but also make radical changes to this tradition.

Shakespeare also drew on traditional forms, but the particular structure of his poems is now so associated with him that it's referred to as a Shakespearean Sonnet. If you've ever wanted to write like Shakespeare, here are some handy tips and tools of the trade...

Shakespearean sonnets have 14 lines, and they are divided into three 'stanzas' of four lines each, then a 'couplet' - two lines which bring the poem to a close.

The lines and stanzas can be used to break up different images and thoughts in the poem to give it a sense of moving along, almost like advancing from one room to another.

With very few exceptions, all 154 of Shakespeare's sonnets have the same rhyme scheme. It goes: ABAB CDCD EFEF GG.

So if the first two lines go, "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? / Thou art more lovely and more temperate", then the next two lines should rhyme with 'day' and 'temperate':

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of may
And summer's lease hath all too short a date

This point's a little tricky, but it's important. One thing that makes poems different from normal writing ('prose'), is that they have a sense of rhythm, almost like the lyrics or the beat in a song. Shakespearean sonnets have a rhythm called 'Iambic Pentameter'.

It sounds technical, but really it's just a question of syllables. 'Penta' means 'ten', so each line should have ten syllables. Its the 'iambic' part which is more difficult, but that's where the beat comes in...

Though they're usually about sex and love, you can write sonnets about whatever moves you to passionate feeling! One thing to remember about the poem's content, however, is that it should include something called a Volta, which comes from the Italian word for 'turn'.

The 'Volta' of a Shakespearean sonnet is a turn of thought, usually about two-thirds of the way through the poem, where the speaker breaks from the original impulse of the poem and expresses a shift of mood or an advancement of a mini story.

Now you know the basics, let's look at a complete sonnet and see if you can spot all the features we've learned. Are you ready? Keep clicking to read Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare, stanza-by-stanza...

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.

And there you have it! You're ready to versify like the master Sonneteer himself. Dig deep and find what makes you feel passion, then see if you can express it using these rules. Happy writing!