You have 14 lines to work with when creating a Shakespearean sonnet. Your poem will take the form of 3 quatrains and 1 couplet. This totals 4 stanzas. A stanza is a grouping of lines usually with a specific rhyming pattern. A quatrain consists of 4 lines. A couplet consists of two lines. Your poem will take on the form below.

Line 1
Line 2
Line 3
Line 4 Quatrain One/Stanza One

Line 5
Line 6
Line 7
Line 8 Quatrain Two/Stanza Two

Line 9
Line 10
Line 11
Line 12 Quatrain Three/Stanza Three

Line 13
Line 14 Couplet One/Stanza Four

Rhyming ABAB CDCD EFEF GG
You have to follow a specific rhyming scheme when constructing a Shakespearean sonnet. It looks like this ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. Like-letters rhyme in this example. A rhymes withA and B would rhyme with B and so on.

Line 1 A
Line 2 B
Line 3 A
Line 4 B Quatrain One/Stanza One

Line 5 C
Line 6 D
Line 7 C
Line 8 D Quatrain Two/Stanza Two

Line 9 E
Line 10 F
Line 11 E
Line 12 F Quatrain Three/Stanza Three

Line 13 G
Line 14 G Couplet One/Stanza Four

Iambic Pentameter “da-DUM”

This is the beat of your poem. You can only use 10 syllables per line with an accent on the 2nd ,4th ,6th , 8th and 10th syllable. Do not confuse syllables with words. One word may have more than one syllable. It’s not as hard is it might sound. Iambic means foot or measure. The foot/measure of a Shakespearean sonnet is 2 syllables with a da-DUM beat/accent. Pentameter is used to describe 5 feet/beats. You can look at the da-DUM as unstressed (da) and stressed (DUM)

da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM (this represents a line of iambic pentameter)
You notice 5 da-Dum’s which total 10 syllables. Each line must use this meter.

Here is a line from a sonnet I wrote specifically to illustrate this Knol.

My LOVE for YOU is LIKE the HARD est RAIN (10 syllables)
da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM

Notice all the words are single syllable words but HARDest. You can stress words with multiple syllables as you wish within creative reason.

MY POETRY ABOUT MY LOVE FOR SOMEBODY OR FOR SOMETHING THAT I REALLY LOVE