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In preparing for a sonnet, think about the tone you might use? what words might you emphasize? what will emphasizing do? Here's a sample of Sonnet 130 read by none other than Tom Hiddleston!

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Sonnet 130 by William Shakespeare (Tom Hiddleston) by AlexHopeML

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My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun; Coral is far more red than her lips' red; If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun; If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.

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Your task will be to interview an actor/actress/drama teacher in the community and ask them to elaborate on areas you're curious about in regards to Shakespeare. You might ask what goes into preparing to recite a sonnet? what themes are still used today that are from Shakespeare?

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take a look at some basic tools for writing a Shakespeare Style Sonnet

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Shakespearean Sonnet Basics: Iambic Pentameter and the English Sonnet Style
Shakespeare's sonnets are written predominantly in a meter called iambic pentameter, a rhyme scheme in which each sonnet line consists of ten syllables. The syllables are divided into five pairs called iambs or iambic feet. An iamb is a metrical unit made up of one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable. An example of an iamb would be good BYE. A line of iambic pentameter flows like this:

baBOOM / baBOOM / baBOOM / baBOOM / baBOOM.

Here are some examples from the sonnets:

When I / do COUNT / the CLOCK / that TELLS / the TIME ( Sonnet 12)

When IN / dis GRACE / with FOR / tune AND / men's EYES
I ALL / a LONE / be WEEP / my OUT/ cast STATE ( Sonnet 29)

Shall I / com PARE/ thee TO / a SUM / mer's DAY?
Thou ART / more LOVE / ly AND / more TEM / per ATE ( Sonnet 18)

Shakespeare's plays are also written primarily in iambic pentameter, but the lines are unrhymed and not grouped into stanzas. Unrhymed iambic pentameter is called blank verse. It should be noted that there are also many prose passages in Shakespeare's plays and some lines of trochaic tetrameter, such as the Witches' speeches in Macbeth.

Sonnet Structure
There are fourteen lines in a Shakespearean sonnet. The first twelve lines are divided into three quatrains with four lines each. In the three quatrains the poet establishes a theme or problem and then resolves it in the final two lines, called the couplet. The rhyme scheme of the quatrains is abab cdcd efef. The couplet has the rhyme scheme gg. This sonnet structure is commonly called the English sonnet or the Shakespearean sonnet, to distinguish it from the Italian Petrarchan sonnet form which has two parts: a rhyming octave (abbaabba) and a rhyming sestet (cdcdcd). The Petrarchan sonnet style was extremely popular with Elizabethan sonneteers, much to Shakespeare's disdain (he mocks the conventional and excessive Petrarchan style in Sonnet 130).

Only three of Shakespeare's 154 sonnets do not conform to this structure: Sonnet 99, which has 15 lines; Sonnet 126, which has 12 lines; and Sonnet 145, which is written in iambic tetrameter.

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How to cite this article:
Mabillard, Amanda.Shakespearean Sonnet Basics: Iambic Pentameter and the English Sonnet Style. Shakespeare Online. 30 Aug. 2000. < http://www.shakespeare-online.com/sonnets/sonnetstyle.html >.
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Even More...

Queen Elizabeth: Shakespeare's Patron
King James I of England: Shakespeare's Patron
The Earl of Southampton: Shakespeare's Patron
Going to a Play in Elizabethan London

Shakespeare Glossary
Shakespeare Quotations (by Play and Theme)
Early Versions of Shakespeare's Plays
Shakespeare's Edward III?

Shakespeare's Audience in his Day
Shakespeare's Trap Doors

Shakespeare's Language
Why Study Shakespeare?
Portraits of Shakespeare
Shakespeare's Contemporaries

More to Explore
Introduction to Shakespeare's Sonnets
How to Analyze a Shakespearean Sonnet
Theories Regarding the Sonnets
The Rules of Shakespearean Sonnets

Shakespeare's Sonnets: Q & A
Are Shakespeare's Sonnets Autobiographical?
Petrarch's Influence on Shakespeare
Themes in Shakespeare's Sonnets

Shakespeare's Treatment of Love
Shakespeare's Most Famous Love Quotes
The Order of the Sonnets
The Date of the Sonnets

Shakespeare and the Earl of Southampton
Who was Mr. W. H.?
Are the Sonnets Addressed to Two Persons?
Who was The Rival Poet?

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Sonnet Notes ... Sonnet 75 opens with a seemingly joyous and innocent tribute to the young friend who is vital to the poet's emotional well being. However, the poet quickly establishes the negative aspect of his dependence on his beloved, and the complimentary metaphor that the friend is food for his soul decays into ugly imagery of the poet alternating between starving and gorging himself on that food. The poet is disgusted and frightened by his dependence on the young friend. He is consumed by guilt over his passion. Words with implicit sexual meanings permeate the sonnet -- "enjoyer", "treasure", "pursuing", "possessing", "had" -- as do allusions to five of the seven "deadly" sins -- avarice (4), gluttony (9, 14), pride (5), lust (12), and envy (6). Read on...

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Shakespeare on Jealousy
Shakespeare on Lawyers
Shakespeare on Lust
Shakespeare on Marriage

Shakespeare in Old English?
Shakespeare's Influence on Other Writers
An Elizabethan Christmas
Clothing in Elizabethan England

Ben Jonson and the Decline of the Drama
Publishing in Elizabethan England
Shakespeare's Audience
Religion in Shakespeare's England

Alchemy and Astrology in Shakespeare's Day
Entertainment in Elizabethan England
London's First Public Playhouse
Shakespeare Hits the Big Time

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Shakespearean Sonnet Basics: Iambic Pentameter and the English Sonnet Style

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Shakespeare's sonnets are written predominantly in a meter called iambic pentameter, a rhyme scheme in which each sonnet line consists of ten syllables. The syllables are divided into five pairs called iambs or iambic feet. An iamb is a metrical unit made up of one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable.

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Why is it that when we encounter Shakespeare plays and sonnets, we shudder with fear? Could it be the language that makes us scurry away? Or is it underlying themes we can't seem to wrap our head around? Well, fear no more because over the course, we will eat, sleep, and breathe Shakespeare in order to understand him better and maybe even become Shakespeare fanatics! Our task will be to learn about the world of Shakespeare but immersing ourselves into the world of roleplaying and creating our very own sonnets or plays!