Shakespeare's ' Sonnet 18' - sometimes called 'Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?' - is one of his most famous sonnets:Ī Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? b Thou art more lovely and more temperate.Ī Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,ī And summer's lease hath all too short a date.Ĭ Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,ĭ And often is his gold complexion dimmed Ĭ And every fair from fair sometime declines,ĭ By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimmed į Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest,Į Nor shall death brag thou wanderest in his shade,į When in eternal lines to time thou growest. Shakespearean sonnets follow a specific rhyme pattern - a-b-a-b / c-d-c-d / e-f-e-f / g-g - and the last two lines form a rhyming couplet. The opening line of Shakespeare's ' Sonnet 12' provides a good example of the da- DUM rhythm of iambic pentameter: When I do count the clock that tells the time… The da- DUM sound of the human heartbeat is sometimes used as an example of iambic pentameter: da- DUM, da- DUM, da- DUM, da- DUM, da- DUM. Iambic pentameter is a pattern in which an unstressed syllable is followed by a stressed syllable repeated five times. Shakespearean sonnets contain 14 lines, which each have 10 syllables and are written in iambic pentameter.

The most common - and the simplest - type is known as the English or Shakespearean sonnet. Several variations of sonnet structure have evolved over the years.

Poets use the sonnet form to examine the tension that exists between the two elements. Sonnets usually feature two contrasting characters, events, beliefs or emotions. Sonnets are lyrical poems of 14 lines that follow a specific rhyming pattern. A sonnet is a special form of poetry that takes its name from the Italian word sonetto, which means “little song' or “little sound.' Although English poet William Shakespeare is famous for his plays, he also wrote 154 sonnets (not including the ones that appear within his plays).

English sonnet examples by students