Sonnets?

[剣 斧 血]

Hey, I want to try and write a sonnet, but i don't really know where to start. Does anyone have any tips or advice about how sonnets are usually set out just to get me started?

[Cobrevolution]

A sonnet is a 14 line poem written in an ABAB scheme, whose last two lines are a couplet (AA). If I remember correctly from 12th grade Creative Writing, it's in Iambic Pentameter...which if I also remember correctly, is that stressed/unstressed syllable run.

[dullsilver_mike]

A sonnet is a 14 line poem written in an ABAB scheme, whose last two lines are a couplet (AA). If I remember correctly from 12th grade Creative Writing, it's in Iambic Pentameter...which if I also remember correctly, is that stressed/unstressed syllable run.

Mostly have it. There are different types of sonnets: the most common is the Shakespearian sonnet which has an ABBA CDDC EFFE GG rhyme scheme. You can look up other styles of sonnets online. The rhyme scheme Cobrevolution mentioned is a Spenserian sonnet, you can also look up the Petrarchan sonnet for a rhyme scheme that isn't divided into quatrains and a couplet. There are other variations on the form out there, but those three make up about 95% of any sonnets you'll ever read.

The sonnet is written in one chunk usually, but those quatrains and that couplet are separate units. You'll usually put different content in each one just as you would in separate stanzas of other forms. If you're writing Shakesperian, for example you'd have one idea in lines ABBA, a second illustration of that idea in CDDC, A third idea or some kind of antithesis in EFFE, and then a sudden turn at the end that wraps things up nicely in the two simply lines of GG. Again, there's no rule and a million variations, but that's the most common way of organizing information in a sonnet. Other forms of the sonnet call for other types of thematic or rhetorical organization.

Best place to start is to put a pencil down on some paper and have at it. Google is your friend too, you could probably find everything I just said by simply googling, and I'm sure there's plenty more you can find as well.

[Ganoosh]

I was taught that a Shakespearean sonnet was ABAB CDCD EFEF GG, and a Petrarchan sonnet was ABBA ABBA CDE CDE. Meh. I hate sonnets anyway. Too hard.

[GuitarQ33r0]

this is why i failed english

[dullsilver_mike]

I was taught that a Shakespearean sonnet was ABAB CDCD EFEF GG, and a Petrarchan sonnet was ABBA ABBA CDE CDE. Meh. I hate sonnets anyway. Too hard.

I had it wrong; you had it right. The Spenserian sonnet is like the Shakespearian sonnet, but with over-lapping rhyme between quatrains. Misinformation on my part TS, it's too long since I've looked at any Renaissance poetry. Again, nothing you can't just google for clarity, my points about thematic or rhetorical organization remain.

[Cobrevolution]

this is why i failed english
These are the types of rules that make me hate poetry. Just write, man.