A Shakespearean sonnet is a fourteen-line poem in iambic pentameter, made up of three quatrains and a final couplet, and rhymed ABAB CDCD EFEF GG.
The form is also called the English or Elizabethan sonnet, to set it apart from the Italian, or Petrarchan, sonnet it grew out of. Shakespeare did not invent it, but his sequence of 154 sonnets, published in 1609, made it so much his own that it now carries his name.
At a Glance
Here are the key facts about the Shakespearean sonnet for quick reference.
The Four Parts
A Shakespearean sonnet divides into four parts, and each part has its own job.
The first three parts are quatrains, groups of four lines that rhyme alternately: ABAB, then CDCD, then EFEF. Each quatrain usually develops one step of the poem’s argument, introducing an idea in the first, developing or complicating it in the second, and pushing it furthest in the third. The fourth part is the couplet, two lines that rhyme with each other and stand apart from the rest. The couplet sums up, answers, or turns what the quatrains have said.
That structure makes the Shakespearean sonnet less a burst of feeling than a short argument. It gives the poem room to build a case in three stages and then deliver a verdict in two lines.
An Example: Sonnet 73
Sonnet 73 shows the four parts at work more clearly than almost any other poem in the sequence.
Each quatrain gives a different image of the speaker’s old age, and each image is smaller in scale than the last: a year, then a day, then a fire. The couplet turns to the listener and draws the conclusion.
The three quatrains each start a new rhyme, a new image, and a new stage of the argument. The couplet, with its own rhyme, steps back from the images and tells us what they mean.
The Turn
Most sonnets contain a turn, or volta, where the poem changes direction.
In a Shakespearean sonnet, the turn usually comes in one of two places. It can arrive at line 9, the start of the third quatrain, as it does in Sonnet 18, where eight lines on summer’s flaws give way to “But thy eternal summer shall not fade.” Or it can wait for the couplet, as it does in Sonnet 130, where twelve lines of mocking comparisons end with “And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare.” The turn is often signaled by a word such as “but,” “yet,” or “and yet.”
Meter and Rhyme
Every line of a Shakespearean sonnet follows the same rhythm, and the rhymes follow a fixed pattern.
The rhythm is iambic pentameter: ten syllables per line, in five pairs that each run from an unstressed syllable to a stressed one, as in “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” Shakespeare varies it constantly, and the variations often mark the most important words. Our guide to iambic pentameter explains how to hear it. The rhyme scheme, ABAB CDCD EFEF GG, uses seven rhyme sounds in all, and our guide to the Shakespearean sonnet rhyme scheme explains how it works and where Shakespeare breaks it.
Shakespearean, Petrarchan, and Spenserian Sonnets
The Shakespearean sonnet is one of three main sonnet forms in English, and the three divide their fourteen lines differently.
The Petrarchan sonnet, named for the fourteenth-century Italian poet Petrarch, sets up a problem in its octave and turns to answer it in the sestet. The Shakespearean form breaks the argument into more steps and ends more sharply, since its couplet is set apart by its own rhyme. The Spenserian form, used by Edmund Spenser in his Amoretti (1595), keeps the Shakespearean shape but links each quatrain to the next by carrying a rhyme across. For a side-by-side comparison of the two main forms, with an example of each, see our guide to the Shakespearean vs. Petrarchan sonnet.
Where the Form Came From
The English sonnet was created by adapting an Italian form to a language with fewer rhymes.
Sir Thomas Wyatt brought the sonnet into English in the 1520s and 1530s, translating and imitating Petrarch. Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, then developed the ABAB CDCD EFEF GG pattern in the 1540s. Italian has many words with the same endings, so it can repeat one rhyme sound four times; English has far fewer, and Surrey’s solution was to use each rhyme sound only twice. Poems by both men were printed in Tottel’s Miscellany in 1557.
In the 1590s, sonnet sequences became a fashion in England, led by Sir Philip Sidney’s Astrophil and Stella. Shakespeare’s sonnets were written during and after that fashion, and when they were published in 1609, they made the form permanently his.
What the Form Is For
The Shakespearean sonnet is built for argument, and Shakespeare uses it to think through a feeling rather than simply express one.
The three quatrains let him test an idea from several angles before the couplet delivers something final. In Sonnet 73, three images of age build toward a single conclusion about love. In Sonnet 116, twelve lines define love by what it is not, and the couplet stakes everything the poet has written on the definition. In Sonnet 130, twelve lines that seem to insult a woman turn, in two, into praise. In each case, the form and the meaning cannot be separated. To see how to follow that argument in any sonnet, read our guide to how to read a Shakespeare sonnet.
Common Questions
The questions readers ask most often about the Shakespearean sonnet, answered briefly.
How Many Lines Are in a Shakespearean Sonnet?
Fourteen: three quatrains of four lines each, followed by a two-line couplet.
What Is the Difference Between a Shakespearean and a Petrarchan Sonnet?
A Shakespearean sonnet has three quatrains and a couplet, rhymed ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. A Petrarchan sonnet has an eight-line octave and a six-line sestet, rhymed ABBAABBA followed by a varying pattern such as CDECDE. Our guide to the Shakespearean vs. Petrarchan sonnet compares them in full.
What Is a Volta?
The turn in a sonnet, where the poem changes direction. In a Shakespearean sonnet, it usually comes at line 9 or in the final couplet.
Why Is It Called a Shakespearean Sonnet?
Because Shakespeare is its most famous practitioner. The form was first used by the Earl of Surrey in the 1540s, but Shakespeare’s 154 sonnets made it his.
How Do You Write a Shakespearean Sonnet?
Write fourteen lines of iambic pentameter, rhymed ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. Use each quatrain for one step of an idea, turn the idea at line 9 or in the couplet, and let the final couplet sum up or answer what came before.
Related Reading
Three guides that take each part of the form further.