1. How to write a Sonnet
Gambler

2. Steps
Select your subject/theme (traditionally sonnets pertain to love.)
Consider what mood you will be using
Label your rhyme scheme (ABAB CDCD EFEF GG)
Begin listing words in a brain storm to choose from for your rhyme scheme
Use “rhymezone.com”

3. Steps continued
Label your 3 quatrains (4 lines each) and 1 couplet at the end (2 lines)
Remember every lines must be 10 syllables
Use:

4. The basic Idea
First quatrain: An exposition of the main theme and main metaphor.
Second quatrain: Theme and metaphor extended or complicated; often, some imaginative example is given.
Third quatrain: a twist or conflict, often introduced by a “but” (very often leading off the ninth line).
Couplet: Summarizes and leaves the reader with a new, concluding image.

5. Consider Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18
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 owest, Nor shall death brag thou wanderest in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou growest. So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

6. To Do List: Complete your brainstorm
Complete your first copy using and your brainstorm to help
Have Mr. Gambler check
Complete final copy