A sonnet is a short rhyming poem that contains fourteen lines. Dante and Francisco Petrarch, an Italian philosopher, invented it in the 13/14th century. This type of poetry remained largely unknown until writers such as Shakespeare, began using it. It should be noted that Shakespeare adapted the original sonnet form to his own unique style. Under Shakespeare's name the sonnet gained great acclaim.
The first rule about sonnets is that they use iambic meter in each line. An iamb sound is an unstressed sound followed by a stressed sound. Most sonnets are written in iambic pentameter, which has five iambs in a line. Some sonnets are written with four iambs in a line, which are called iambic tetrameter. Iambic meter is a basic heartbeat rhythm. When using iambic meter you will set the rhythm pace of your reader and the reader will be pulled through your poem. Here is an example of iambic pentameter: "The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain."
When using iambic meter to write a sonnet you can use a variety of iambic styles to create your sonnet. Iambic trimeter contains three iambs, and iambic heptameter contains seven iambs. How you place the iambic styles together is what will define your poem. Here are two examples of how you can place iambic styles together to create a sonnet:
Example one:
Iambic pentameter
Iambic pentameter
Iambic trimeter
Iambic trimeter
Iambic pentameter
Example two:
Iambic pentameter
Iambic trimeter
Iambic trimeter
Iambic pentameter
Iambic pentameter
The second rule about sonnets is that they use line-ending rhymes. Using line-ending rhymes helps make the poem easier to memorize for the readers. Line ending rhymes shares the basic purpose of memorization with rhythm, the better the rhythm and rhyming is the easier it is going to be to memorize the poem. For example, the old songs that you still remember from your childhood or even early teens. Their rhyme and rhythm caused these songs to become a part of your long-term memory. By using the rhyming and rhythm tools effectively, you can make your poems just as memorable.
Iambic meter is perhaps the most effective reading/singing rhythm. Mainly because it flows inside of your head or it flows when you speak it naturally. If you combine that with the natural end-rhymes, which are end-line syllable rhymes with other end-line syllables, you can create a very memorable piece of writing. Just like with the iambic meters you can mix and match the lines that have end-line rhymes. For example, you can use two different rhyming sounds, (a) and (b). You designate certain lines for rhyming sound (a) and the other lines get the next rhyming sound. Here is an example of how this would look with iambic meter.
Example one:
Iambic pentameter - Rhyming sound a
Iambic pentameter - Rhyming sound a
Iambic trimeter - Rhyming sound b
Iambic trimeter - rhyming sound b
Iambic pentameter - Rhyming sound a
The third rule that you need to be aware of is that a Shakespearean sonnet is not going to follow the above two rules the same way that other sonnets do. Mainly because Shakespeare took the basic concept of the sonnet and adjusted, it to fit the sonnets that he was writing. A Shakespearean sonnet consists of 14 iambic pentameter lines with an end-line rhyme pattern. Besides the sonnet, being written entirely in iambic pentameter the end-line rhyme pattern can also be variable.
A second type of sonnet called a Petrarchan sonnet is made up of fourteen iambic pentameter lines, but unlike the Shakespearean sonnet it is broken into two parts, octave and sestet and the end-line rhyme pattern is fixed. The octave, which is the first eight lines, has a rhyme pattern of abbaabba and the sestet, the final six lines, has a rhyme pattern of cdedce and does not contain a couplet. The octave states the problem and the sestet gives the answer or solution.