The sonnet is a form of poem, which originated in classical European poetry. The name ’sonnet’ has come from the Occitan phrase ’sonet‘ and the Italian word ‘sonetto’, which means ‘little song’ or ‘little sound’. In the 20th century, sonnet had come to indicate a poem of fourteen lines, which follows a firm rhyme method and definite structure. The person who writes sonnets are often termed as ’sonneteers’, though the term is used mockingly.
William Shakespeare is one of the best sonnet writers. He has written 156 sonnets. An English sonnet includes 14 lines, and every line contains ten syllables and is written in ‘iambic pentameter’. If you want to write a sonnet, then just follow the instructions given below.
Things required:
- Pencils
- Pens
- Spiral Notebooks
- Word Processors
- Pencils
- Boxes of Chocolates
- Pencils
- Erasers
- Notebook Papers
- Pens
- Godiva or Whitman Chocolates
- Dictionaries
- Thesauri
- Roses
Instruction:
- To write a sonnet, you will have to choose the topic or subject material for your sonnet. Sonnet subject have always been focused on love or philosophy, but recent sonnet cover almost every topic.
- Divide the subject of sonnet in two parts. In the first part you will create a situation or idea for the reader, in the second part you can write some kind of ending or climax.
- Write your first part as three rhymes, i.e. three verses of four lines each.
- Compose the three rhymes in the format of ‘a-b-a-b, c-d-c-d, e-f-e-f’. In this note every letter stands for a line of the sonnet and the last lines of sonnet rhyme with each other. Some sonnet uses the gauge of iambic pentameter, as you have seen in these three rhymes from the ’sonnet 30′ of Shakespeare. The style of Shakespeare was very unique and different.
- Shakespeare sonnet 30- “When to the sessions of sweet silent thought (a)/ I summon up remembrance of things past”, (b)/ “I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought”, (a)/ “And with old woes new wail my dear time’s waste”: (b)/ “Then can I drown an eye, unused to flow”, (c)/ “or precious friends hid in death’s dateless night” (d)/ “and weep afresh love’s long since canceled woe” (c)/ “and moan the expense of many a vanished sight”: (d)/ “Then can I grieve at grievances foregone”, (e)/ “And heavily from woe to woe tell o’er” (f)/ “The sad account of fore-bemoaned moan”, (e)/ “Which I new pay as if not paid before”. (f)”.
- Write the last part as a verse, three rhyming lines of verse. In the last part of the sonnet you can employ the ‘g-g’ rhyme notes, in this verse the 2 lines rhyme with each other. You can use ‘Shakespeare’s sonnet 30′, “but if the while I think on thee, dear friend, (g)/ all losses are restored and sorrows end. (g)”
Tips and Warnings:
- An iamb is a kind of musical ‘foot’, which is employed in a rhyme. It is made of two syllables, with the stress on the pronunciation of the second syllable. Such as ‘to-day’ or ‘en-rage’.
- Pentameter means five musical notes per line. Iambic pentameter means, each line of the poem includes of five iambic notes i.e. 5 pairs of alternately stressed and unstressed syllables, or 10 total syllables.
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