Poetic form

What is a Sonnet?

Definition

A 14-line poem in iambic pentameter, usually with a turn of thought near the end.

The sonnet arrived in English from Italy in the 1500s and never left. Fourteen lines, a steady heartbeat of iambic pentameter, and — the secret ingredient — the volta: a turn where the poem changes its mind, answers its own question, or lands its punch.

The Shakespearean (English) sonnet runs three quatrains and a final couplet (ABAB CDCD EFEF GG), saving its twist for the last two lines. The Petrarchan (Italian) sonnet splits 8 + 6, turning at line nine. Four hundred years of love poems, protest poems, and elegies have fit inside this little room — that's the form's magic: limits that concentrate feeling.

Structure of a sonnet

14 lines, traditionally iambic pentameter (10 syllables, da-DUM × 5)
Shakespearean rhyme scheme: ABAB CDCD EFEF GG
Petrarchan rhyme scheme: ABBAABBA + CDECDE (or CDCDCD)
A volta (turn of thought), at line 9 (Petrarchan) or line 13 (Shakespearean)

How to write a sonnet

Pick one idea with two sides — a question and answer, a problem and consolation.
Draft three quatrains exploring the idea, each from a slightly new angle.
Write the couplet first if you're stuck: know your landing, then build the runway.
Count beats out loud — pentameter is heard, not counted on fingers.
Let the volta genuinely turn: surprise yourself before you surprise the reader.

167 sonnet examples

Classic and original sonnet poems, free to read in full.

Sonnet 18: Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

William Shakespeare · 1609

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,

14 lines · sonnet

Sonnet 116: Let me not to the marriage of true minds

William Shakespeare · 1609

Let me not to the marriage of true mindsAdmit impediments. Love is not loveWhich alters when it alteration finds,

14 lines · sonnet

Sonnet 130: My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun

William Shakespeare · 1609

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;

14 lines · sonnet

How Do I Love Thee? (Sonnet 43)

Elizabeth Barrett Browning · 1850

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.I love thee to the depth and breadth and heightMy soul can reach, when feeling out of sight

14 lines · sonnet

Bright Star

John Keats · 1819

Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art—Not in lone splendour hung aloft the nightAnd watching, with eternal lids apart,

14 lines · sonnet

Remember

Christina Rossetti · 1862

Remember me when I am gone away,Gone far away into the silent land;When you can no more hold me by the hand,

14 lines · sonnet

To My Mother

Edgar Allan Poe · 1849

Because I feel that, in the Heavens above, The angels, whispering to one another,Can find, among their burning terms of love,

14 lines · sonnet

Sonnet 38: First time he kissed me

Elizabeth Barrett Browning · 1850

First time he kissed me, he but only kissedThe fingers of this hand wherewith I write;And ever since, it grew more clean and white,

14 lines · sonnet

Sonnet 22: When our two souls stand up erect and strong

Elizabeth Barrett Browning · 1850

When our two souls stand up erect and strong,Face to face, silent, drawing nigh and nigher,Until the lengthening wings break into fire

14 lines · sonnet

Death, Be Not Proud (Holy Sonnet 10)

John Donne · 1633

Death, be not proud, though some have callèd theeMighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow

14 lines · sonnet

On First Looking Into Chapman's Homer

John Keats · 1816

Much have I travell'd in the realms of gold, And many goodly states and kingdoms seen; Round many western islands have I been

14 lines · sonnet

Ozymandias

Percy Bysshe Shelley · 1818

I met a traveller from an antique landWho said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stoneStand in the desert...Near them, on the sand,

14 lines · sonnet

The Soldier

Rupert Brooke · 1914

If I should die, think only this of me:That there's some corner of a foreign fieldThat is for ever England. There shall be

14 lines · sonnet

Sonnet 1: From fairest creatures we desire increase

William Shakespeare

From fairest creatures we desire increase,That thereby beauty's rose might never die,But as the riper should by time decease,

14 lines · sonnet

Sonnet 10: For shame! deny that thou bear'st love to any

William Shakespeare

For shame! deny that thou bear'st love to any,Who for thy self art so unprovident.Grant, if thou wilt, thou art belov'd of many,

14 lines · sonnet

Sonnet 100: Where art thou Muse that thou forget'st so long

William Shakespeare

Where art thou Muse that thou forget'st so long,To speak of that which gives thee all thy might?Spend'st thou thy fury on some worthless song,

14 lines · sonnet

Sonnet 101: O truant Muse what shall be thy amends

William Shakespeare

O truant Muse what shall be thy amendsFor thy neglect of truth in beauty dy'd?Both truth and beauty on my love depends;

14 lines · sonnet

Sonnet 102: My love is strengthen'd, though more weak in seeming

William Shakespeare

My love is strengthen'd, though more weak in seeming;I love not less, though less the show appear;That love is merchandiz'd, whose rich esteeming,

14 lines · sonnet

Sonnet 103: Alack! what poverty my Muse brings forth

William Shakespeare

Alack! what poverty my Muse brings forth,That having such a scope to show her pride,The argument, all bare, is of more worth

14 lines · sonnet

Sonnet 104: To me, fair friend, you never can be old

William Shakespeare · 1609

To me, fair friend, you never can be old,For as you were when first your eye I ey'd,Such seems your beauty still. Three winters cold,

14 lines · sonnet

Sonnet 105: Let not my love be call'd idolatry

William Shakespeare

Let not my love be call'd idolatry,Nor my beloved as an idol show,Since all alike my songs and praises be

14 lines · sonnet

Sonnet 106: When in the chronicle of wasted time

William Shakespeare

When in the chronicle of wasted timeI see descriptions of the fairest wights,And beauty making beautiful old rime,

14 lines · sonnet

Sonnet 107: Not mine own fears, nor the prophetic soul

William Shakespeare

Not mine own fears, nor the prophetic soulOf the wide world dreaming on things to come,Can yet the lease of my true love control,

14 lines · sonnet

Sonnet 108: What's in the brain, that ink may character

William Shakespeare

What's in the brain, that ink may character,Which hath not figur'd to thee my true spirit?What's new to speak, what now to register,

14 lines · sonnet

Common questions

How many lines does a sonnet have?

Fourteen. That's the one non-negotiable rule of the form, whether Shakespearean, Petrarchan, or modern.

Do sonnets have to rhyme?

Traditional sonnets follow strict rhyme schemes, but modern poets often keep the 14-line shape and volta while loosening or dropping the rhymes.

What is a volta?

The 'turn' — the moment a sonnet pivots from question to answer, problem to resolution, or sets up its closing twist.