### This is one of the [[forms of poetry]] you can experiment with. A sonnet is a fourteen-line lyric poem, usually written in [iambic pentameter](https://www.thoughtco.com/introducing-iambic-pentameter-2985082), that has a very specific rhyme scheme. There are two major types of sonnets: the Italian (or Petrarchan) Sonnet and the Shakespearean (or English) Sonnet. During Elizabethan days, a poet might write a sonnet about something (or someone) that they really cared about---thus choosing the perfect words to fit into a perfectly structured poem. Here's an example of [a sonnet by Shakespeare](https://shakespeare.folger.edu/shakespeares-works/shakespeares-sonnets/sonnet-14/), with each end rhyme marked with a letter: > Not from the stars do I my judgment pluck, (a) > And yet methinks I have astronomy, (b) > But not to tell of good, or evil luck, (a) > Of plagues, of dearths, or seasons' quality, (b) > Nor can I fortune to brief minutes tell; (c) > Pointing to each his thunder, rain and wind, (d) > Or say with princes if it shall go well (c) > By oft predict that I in heaven find. (d) > But from thine eyes my knowledge I derive, (e) > And constant stars in them I read such art (f) > As truth and beauty shall together thrive (e) > If from thy self, to store thou wouldst convert: (f) > Or else of thee this I prognosticate, (g) > Thy end is truth's and beauty.s doom and date. (g) You may notice that some of the rhymes are not exact. Sometimes that is what is called off rhyme, or [slant rhyme](https://www.litcharts.com/literary-devices-and-terms/slant-rhyme), but in other cases it may be an indication that [pronunciation of certain words has changed over time](https://drive.google.com/open?id=11JGwImnMLDqdM43O4CSeHpxTGsGjU2TY&authuser=mschulte%40waukesha.k12.wi.us&usp=drive_fs). Also, you may detect some variation in the meter; the iambic pentameter is not always 100% strict all the way through, though it generally dominates. * Poets.org has a [page of more information about sonnets](https://poets.org/glossary/sonnet); check it out! * Here's a [video about how to write a sonnet](https://drive.google.com/open?id=1OIcI9Gg0mbaPl8yTon7tIpNZ5nzGsvsO&authuser=mschulte%40waukesha.k12.wi.us&usp=drive_fs). ([YouTube](https://youtu.be/kBlBqFXMCqc)) * And here's [another video about writing sonnets](https://drive.google.com/open?id=1OLc3ofqChwrms_-HT168JLegOH_COMkf&authuser=mschulte%40waukesha.k12.wi.us&usp=drive_fs). ([YouTube](https://youtu.be/he_lxFaYwAA)) Examples: * Here's [Alan Rickman reading](https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ONCNZVIFlUFFjTGgI3vvfsyvFbZMkkE_&authuser=mschulte%40waukesha.k12.wi.us&usp=drive_fs) William Shakespeare's [Sonnet 130](https://shakespeare.folger.edu/shakespeares-works/shakespeares-sonnets/sonnet-130/). ([YouTube](https://youtu.be/xP06F0yynic)) * You may wish to follow that with "[Shakespeare's Sonnet 130 (Analysis and Explanation)](https://drive.google.com/open?id=1OVADkyKJc87vY8uKRK665tDrENj9JFOV&authuser=mschulte%40waukesha.k12.wi.us&usp=drive_fs)" ([YouTube](https://youtu.be/8MRRp0JDjpM)) * "[Batter my heart, three person'd God (Holy Sonnet 14)](https://poets.org/poem/batter-my-heart-three-persond-god-holy-sonnet-14)" by John Donne * "[Ozymandias](https://poets.org/poem/ozymandias)" by Percy Bysshe Shelley * "[I think I should have loved you presently](https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46556/i-think-i-should-have-loved-you-presently)" by Edna St. Vincent Millay * "[the sonnet-ballad](https://poets.org/poem/sonnet-ballad)" by Gwendolyn Brooks * "[Half-Hearted Sonnet](https://poets.org/poem/half-hearted-sonnet)" by Kim Addonizio