1. What is a Sonnet?
Understanding the forms, meter, rhyme, and other aspects of the sonnet.

2. Sonnet Form A sonnet has 14 lines.
A sonnet must be written in iambic pentameter.
A sonnet must follow a specific rhyme scheme, depending on the type of sonnet.
A sonnet can be about any subject, though they are often about love or nature.
A sonnet introduces a problem or question in the beginning, and a resolution is offered after the turn.

3. English Sonnet
An English Sonnet is also called a Shakespearean Sonnet.
It includes three quatrains (groups of four lines) and a couplet (two lines).
The rhyme scheme is often abab cdcd efef gg.
The turn is either after eight lines or ten lines.

4. "Sonnet XXIX“ (example)
When in disgrace with Fortune and men's eyes, A
I all alone beweep my outcast state, B
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries, A
And look upon myself and curse my fate, B
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope, C
Featured like him, like him with friends possessed, D
Desiring this man's art and that man's scope, C
With what I most enjoy contented least, D
Yet in these thoughts my self almost despising, E
Haply I think on thee, and then my state, F
(Like to the lark at break of day arising E
From sullen earth) sings hymns at heaven's gate, F
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings, G
That then I scorn to change my state with kings. G

5. Sonnet Practice Read Sonnet 130
Answer the following questions on a separate sheet of paper:
What is the rhyme scheme?
How many quatrains and couplets are found in Sonnet 130?
What is the problem in the poem?
What is the resolution in the poem?
What line is the turning point in the poem?

6. Sonnet 130 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.
I have seen roses damasked, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress when she walks treads on the ground.
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.