Sonnets are 14 lines long and divided into four parts:
- 3 quatrains (a stanza which has four lines) that has alternating rhymes
- 1 couplet at the end (a stanza with two lines)
The rhyme sequence is abab cdcd efef gg
For example:
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.
Notice how in the first four stanzas (paragraphs in poems) have alternating rhymes?
The last two lines should rhyme together. I’m sure you’ll write a great poem!