How to Write A Sonnet

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed.
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;
Nor shall death brag thou wand'rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st,
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
~William Shakespeare, Sonnet 18

Composing a sonnet:

• First, select the subject of your sonnet.
• A sonnet is presented in 2 sections
• Express the thought or theme in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each (quatrain) with a scheme that rhymes on alternating lines
• Come to a conclusion in 2 rhyming lines (couplet)

Note: I actually think I have relearned this. I'm sure I learned how to write a sonnet at some point when I was in school.