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0:03
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art way cooler: look at you, you boss! Hey guys! I’m Dr. Katie Ailes from I Am Loud Productions and in today's video I’m going to teach you how to write a Shakespearean sonnet! This is one of the most commonly used traditional poetic forms, popularised by the Bard himself in the 16th and 17th centuries. This workshop is geared towards people who are new to those elements of form - so if you don't know what iambic pentameter is
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or ABAB rhyme schemes or a volta, that is totally OK. I’m going to explain those concepts clearly and break them down into simple steps. If you do know what they are, if you are already familiar with a lot of the techniques involved in writing a Shakespearean sonnet, thats great! Hopefully this workshop will serve as a bit of a refresher on some of these terms and techniques and hopefully you'll get a few nice new tips out of it too. Just like the rest of the workshops in our
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Return to Form series, there are two different ways that you can watch this video. One is that you can write along with the workshop. I'm going to be leading you step by step through how to write a sonnet so when i get to a screen with a step on it, just pause the video, do the exercise in the step, and then once you're done and you're ready to rejoin the workshop, press Play again. Or what you can do is just to watch the video all the way through without pausing to understand
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how a sonnet works and then try the steps out later in your own time. Either way is fine. All that you need for this workshop is something to write with and something to write on. So you can use a computer, a tablet, or just pen and paper. which is what I'm going to be showing you on. Whatever you are most comfortable with is totally fine. This workshop and our entire Return to Form project is supported by the National Lottery
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through Creative Scotland. To see all of the videos in this series, please Subscribe to our channel, and if you enjoy the video, please do Like and Share it, it means a lot. All right, here we go! You might think that the Shakespearean sonnet was invented by Shakespeare, but actually no. Sonnets in general have existed since the 13th century in Italy, and the particular kind of sonnet that we call a Shakespearean sonnet today was actually influenced by the work of a lot of
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different English writers in the 16th century. Shakespeare did write a lot of them, though--he wrote over 150--so we now associate the form with him. There are four formal elements of a Shakespearean sonnet that I’m going to quickly list off now and then explain fully throughout the workshop. The first formal element is length. All Shakespearean sonnets are exactly 14 lines long. The second formal element is the rhyme scheme.
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I’ll break down what all of this means in detail soon, but the technical terminology is that Shakespearean sonnet consists of three quatrains (which are four-line stanzas) each with an alternating line rhyme structure and then they end with the final couplet (which is a two-line stanza) in which both of those lines rhyme with each other The third formal element of a Shakespearean sonnet is its metre: they must be written in iambic pentameter. Basically what this means
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that there are ten syllables per line and they follow the pattern of stresses beginning with unstressed then stressed, repeated five times so that each line of the Shakespearean sonnet sounds like duh DUH duh DUH duh DUH duh DUH duh DUH. Finally the fourth formal element of a Shakespearean sonnet has to do with its content. It's something called a volta, which means a twist or a change, and it means that the
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tone or narrative or meaning of the sonnet has to change really close to the end. I know that that all sounds like a lot. Don't worry though. In this workshop I'm going to demystify all that jargon and I'm going to break down the process of writing a sonnet into nine simple steps. We're going to start by coming up with an idea, then we're going to go over the rhyme scheme together, and finally I'll explain how iambic pentameter works and get you started in writing
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your poem in metre. In an ideal world all of these elements would come together at once: you'd be smoothly composing a sonnet in perfect iambic pentameter with a gorgeous volta near the end and all of your rhymes would work out perfectly. And maybe once you practice for a while that's the point that you'll be at; but today, because we're still learning, I'm going to break everything down
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into the four various elements and we're going to take it step by step. One big piece of advice: be patient with yourself. Sonnets are tough! They involve a lot of playing around with language, writing and then rewriting, going back to your notes, maybe even having to reevaluate a decision that you made early in the process if it isn't serving you later. This takes time and it takes practice. And frankly, you know, that's true not just of writing sonnets but of
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art in general. So be patient with yourself, persevere, bear with it. You got this. All right let's kick things off. The first step in writing a Shakespearean sonnet is kind of the first step in most poems: deciding what you want to write it about. Shakespeare wrote a lot of his sonnets about love, but really you can write a sonnet on any subject that you want. There are two things that I want you to keep in mind while choosing a subject, though. First: the length of
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the poem. At 14 lines sonnets are relatively short and probably not the best forum for telling an epic story or grappling with complex, detailed ideas. Try to choose a subject that you feel like you can do justice to in just 14 lines. Second: as I mentioned before, traditionally Shakespearean sonnets feature something called a volta. In literature volta means a shift, a turn, a change in the plot or the tone or the meaning of a poem or a book. In a Shakespearean sonnet
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traditionally the volta falls between the third quatrain and the final couplet, so between the third and fourth stanzas. So for example you could write a Shakespearean sonnet which describes a battle for the first three quatrains and then in the final couplet the battle ends and there is peace. In this workshop we're going to start planning our volta from the very beginning. I'm going to ask you to choose as the subject for your sonnet something that changes significantly,
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that evolves or turns or shifts or twists. So you're going to write the first three stanzas about the thing that this thing starts out as and then the final couplet about the thing that this thing turns into. Let me explain with an example. You could write your Shakespearean sonnet about summer turning into autumn where for the first three stanzas you describe the heat and the humidity and, you know, going to the beach and all of that. And then in the final
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two stanzas the leaves start to fall and you can tell the autumn is here: and that's your volta. Or you might choose to write about love turning into heartbreak. That's more or less what Callum O’Dwyer and Hannah Lavery wrote about for our Return to Form series inspired by our prompt "last kiss." You can watch their absolutely stunning sonnets at this link here. So in a moment, for our first step we're going to start brainstorming a list of possible subjects for our sonnet.
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I'm going to ask you to start a new page in your notebook or on your computer, whatever materials you're using, then take five minutes and write down a list of things that change. Write down as many ideas as possible, at least eight. So on my brainstorming page here I have summer to autumn and love to heartbreak, as I was saying, but also caterpillar to butterfly and trees to paper. I really like this idea of wool to yarn. Okay time for step one. Go for it!
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All right, now that you have a list of all of these possible subjects for your sonnet it's time to winnow it down and pick just one. In my last workshop in the Return to Form series on the golden shovel, which you can watch just up there, I introduced a technique called "panning for gold." This is where we do some brainstorming, take some notes, and then go through those notes, highlight or circle anything that we find interesting, and then start a new page where we expand on
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that idea. So that's what we're going to do for the next step of this workshop. In a moment I'm going to ask you to go through all of the notes, all of the ideas that you just brainstormed about possible subjects for your sonnet. I want you to circle or highlight the one that you think is most interesting: that you could write a poem about and as I was saying earlier that you think you could
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do justice to in just 14 lines. Once you've picked your subject I want you to circle that subject and then copy it onto the head of a new page. On that new page we're going to work on expanding it. You're just going to free write as much as you can about that idea. Get down as many ideas, as many words as possible. So going through the notes that I brainstormed I really like this idea of trees turning into paper. I think that there's a lot that I could write about there, you know,
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describing trees, the process of pulping them, pressing them into pages, maybe some metaphors about what we do with paper, so I'm gonna go with that. I've circled that phrase in my brainstorming sheet and on a new page now I'm free writing about both trees and paper—about both what this thing is originally and then what this thing is turned into—so that I have material for my volta. I'm
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not writing a poem just yet, I'm just getting my brain going, warming up writing down as much as possible so that it's useful for me later in the process. All right, time for step two. Go for it!
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All right, now we're cooking. We've got the core idea for our sonnets and we've started thinking creatively about that idea. But before we get too deep into drafting I want to bring in the next formal element of a Shakespearean sonnet: the rhyme scheme. As I noted earlier, the rhyme scheme for Shakespearean sonnet consists of three quatrains (or four-line stanzas) in which every other line rhymes with each other and then a final rhyming couplet (or two-line stanza). Let me show
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you what I'm talking about through Hannah Lavery's gorgeous sonnet "Barbed Kisses." So as you can see here, Hannah's poem is 14 lines long and there are three quatrains and one final couplet. She chose not to add spaces between those sections but they're still there. And the way that we figure out the rhyme scheme is by looking at the ends of each line: usually the final word in the
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line although sometimes it takes multiple words to make the rhyme if the rhyme is multisyllabic. When figuring out rhyme schemes it's really helpful to ascribe a letter to each set of rhymes. So here in Hannah's the first rhyme is "tables" then we have the word "rights" then "fables" then "lights."
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So we've ascribed the letter A to "tables" because it's simply the first end word and then B to "rights" because it's the second end word. And then in line three when we get "fables," because "fables" rhymes with "tables" we put A again. And then "lights" rhymes with "writes" and we get B. And then for the next word which doesn't rhyme with any of them which is "pause" we call that C. And then that's how we end up with the A B A B C D C D E F E F G G rhyme scheme. When writing your
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own sonnets it helps to map out the rhyme scheme initially so that you know where you're going when you're writing. Let me show you in my example. So here I'm starting a new page and I'm writing out that key along the right hand side of the page: A B A B C D C D E F E F G G. And don't worry, I'll have that up on the pause screen too. So now as I'm developing my poem I have a rhyme map showing
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me where my end rhymes need to go. Go ahead now: start a new page and set up your rhyme map.
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So now that we have that rhyme map we can start figuring out which words we're going to use as end words. So the next step is brainstorming words that connect to your subject material and also rhyme with each other. In a moment I'm going to ask you to start a new page and begin working on this step. A really helpful starting point is to go back to your free writing page where you expanded on those ideas and copying over any words that you think might be easy to rhyme.
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I'll show you in my example. So my core concept is trees turning into paper. On this new page I'm going to copy over some of the words that were in my free write about my concept, both about the original thing (which is trees) and then about the thing that it turns into (which is paper). You're going to need at least seven words because there are seven pairs of rhymes in a sonnet, but I would suggest writing out at least 10 to give yourself more options.
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Then I'm going to start writing words that rhyme with them next to them. So the words that I picked here, I've got "trees," "strong," "leaf," "bark," "branch". Words that I thought would be really easy to rhyme but then as I was doing this I realised some words are harder. "Branch" only really rhymes with "blanch" and "ranch," which is tough, so don't drive yourself nuts trying to figure out rhymes for words that don't have a lot of rhymes;
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just move on to a new word. It may also help to write out rhymes for the singular and plural of words to give yourself more options, like both "leaf" and "leaves." And remember that you might end up with something silly here: "trees" rhymes with "cheese," which I'm almost definitely not going to end up using in my poem, but I'm writing it out anyway. We're just warming up our brains here to using rhymes and getting out as many ideas as possible. Always remember that you don't have
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to use all of the material that you brainstorm, so no idea is a bad idea. And—hint hint wink wink—rhyming dictionaries are a poet's best friend. It is totally fine to use whatever resources are most helpful for you in getting these words on the page. All right, go for it.
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So in the next step we're going to sketch out a possible rhyming structure for your sonnet. This might not be what you end up working with in the end but it's material that we can work with for now as we continue to build your sonnet. So what we're going to do is take some of the rhyming words that you just brainstormed and put them into your rhyming road map. So in my example I'm going to use the rhyming words that I drafted about trees for the first three stanzas
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and then the rhyming words about paper for the final rhyming couplet. So I'm putting "trees" at the end of the first line since it's the subject of the poem so I want to introduce it early. And I think I'm going to rhyme it with "breeze;" that wasn't on my rhymes list but it's occurred to me now and I think that I could write something about the tree "swaying in the breeze," you know, that might work well. Then for my next rhyming set I'm gonna go with "belong"
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and "strong" because when I was free-writing I had that memory of climbing trees when I was little and feeling welcome, like I belonged with the trees, and I really want to include that idea. And then I'm just going to keep filling in the rest of my rhyme map using words from my list. For the final couplet, the GG rhyme, I'm going to use one of my sets of rhyming words that I drafted about paper, "sheet" and "neat." And there we go: that's my rhyming map all filled in.
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All right, using your list of rhyming words and your rhyme map go ahead and start adding words into that structure. And it's totally okay to add more rhymes as you're doing this. All right, go for it!
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And that's your rhyme map filled in! As I said, you might get to a point later where you might want to move things around or add different words and that is totally okay. Nothing is set in stone. This is just so that we have material to play with as we keep building. All right, so to recap: we've already gone over the content and length guidelines for Shakespearean sonnet, and we picked our idea and started drafting that idea, and we've gone over the rhyme scheme drafted
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a few rhyming words and started filling in our rhyme map. Now it's time for the final element of the Shakespearean sonnet: the metre. I know that this is the part that puts a lot of people off. It can seem really tricky, but bear with me. I'm going to break it down into simple steps, explain everything, and we're going to work through it together. You got this. So as I mentioned earlier, the metre of a Shakespearean sonnet is called iambic pentameter. What the heck does that mean?
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Let's break it into words. So the first word, 'iambic.' That just means that the metre of this poem is divided into iambs. An iamb is a set of two syllables with a particular stress pattern: unstressed then stressed. So, for example, the word "although" is an iamb because we pronounce it alTHOUGH not ALthough. Other iambs are "porTRAY," "aMAZE," and "uPON". All right, so if a two-syllable word that goes unstressed stressed is an iamb, what about a
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two-syllable word that goes stressed unstressed? That is called a "trochee." For example, the word "helpful" is a trochee because we say it HELPful not helpFUL. Other trochees include "DOLphin", "PENcil", "APple." So how do you tell which is which? You might notice that I'm saying these words in a really exaggerated way, and that's because that tends to be the best technique for figuring out where the stresses lie in words: where we naturally put the emphasis when we're
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saying them out loud. So for example, let's say I want to figure out whether the word "panda" is an iamb or a trochee. I'm going to try saying it out loud with the stress on either syllable. So the first way I'm gonna try is "PANda." Okay. The second way is "panDA." That one sounded weird, so I'm gonna go with the one that sounds more natural, which is "PANda." Because the stress is on the first syllable, because that's the one that I pronounced more loudly with more emphasis,
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and it sounded natural, I can learn that "panda" is a trochee. All right, we're halfway through the technical stuff. I promise that we're gonna get back to drafting your poems soon. Now you may be thinking, 'But Katie, there are words that have more than two syllables!' Yes, there absolutely are, and there are a lot of other terms that we use to describe multisyllabic words with different stress patterns like "anapest" and "dactyl." Honestly though,
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for this workshop you don't need to get caught up in learning all of that terminology. All that you need is to be able to identify where stresses fall in words so that you know how to fit those words and phrases into the metre of your sonnet. But before I get ahead of myself: the term "iambic pentameter" has two words. I've explained what iambic means so what is "pentameter"? Let's break it down. So the prefix "penta" means five and then "meter" means, well, meter.
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So together the term "iambic pentameter" means that in each line of poetry written in this metre there are five iambs. Let me show you more closely what that means in practice by using Callum O'Dwyer's stunning poem "The Kiss." It begins "First off we promised this, a final kiss. / We are a rolling wave approaching land" So here, to show you how the metre works I've divided these lines into iambs. As you can see,
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there are exactly 10 syllables per line: five sets of two syllables. Because it's iambic the stress is always on the second syllable. If I were to read these lines out loud really emphasising the stress pattern it would sound like this: "first OFF we PROMissed THIS a FINal kiss / we ARE a ROlling wave apPROACHing LAND." Obviously this sounds a little silly, but because the stresses are in the correct places, when I do read it out that way it
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still sounds more or less correct. Some of you may be a little confused at this point, going, "Katie, you just taught us that an iamb is two syllables going unstressed stressed, but the first two lines of Callum's poem don't have any iambs in them. They're just trochees and single syllable words. Was everything that you just taught us a lie?!" I hear your confusion and I get you. Let me explain. An iamb is just a set of syllables: one unstressed then one stressed. In the context
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of a line of metered poetry that just means that there are sets of iambs throughout the line. It doesn't mean that every word in the poem needs to be iambic: that would be really difficult to write. Instead it means that you have to use a pattern of stresses that follow an iambic beat.
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You can use trochees, iambs, anapests, dactyls, pyrrhic, spondees, any words that you want to use as long as they fit into that rhythm. In fact, if you wanted to make writing a sonnet really easy you could just use monosyllabic words that is words with only a single syllable They don't really have inherent stresses: like when I say the word "dog" I can't really say "DOG" [loudly] or "dog" [quietly]; it just depends
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on the context. So by writing a sonnet in all single syllable words you make your life easier because you don't have to worry about whether they line up with the stress patterns or not. However, although it might be easier, writing a totally monosyllabic sonnet would probably sound a little bit strange, so it's not the path I would encourage. Okay. That was a lot of information. You might be feeling like the second syllable of an iamb right now... get it ... stressed?
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It's time to get back to the fun part—the actual writing—and apply everything that we've just learned to your sonnet. In order to help you keep track of meter as you're composing your sonnet, I'm going to teach you how to make a simple table called a metre map. Combined with your rhyme map and the material that you've already drafted about your concept, your metre map is the final tool in your arsenal for writing your sonnet. Metre maps are designed
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for testing out poetic metre while you're writing your sonnet. They're there for a lot of trial and error, moving things around, replacing words, all of that, so if you write anything like I write you're gonna go through probably several of them as you write your sonnet. That's totally okay. Luckily they're quick and easy to set up. I'm showing you here on a sheet of paper, but you can also do this on the computer by making a table or even a mini spreadsheet. However you're
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making it, your metre map should be 10 columns wide. Each column is for a single syllable. The other step is to somehow mark which syllables, which columns, should be stressed and which should be unstressed. Here I've done that in two ways: both by writing a "U" at the top of the column for unstressed syllables and an "S" at the column for stressed syllables, and by colouring in the stressed columns in red. Remember iambic pentameter starts with unstressed
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then goes to stressed and alternates. So every odd syllable, every odd column, 1 3 5 7 9, is unstressed, and then every even syllable, every even column, 2 4 6 8 10, is stressed. Okay, your turn. For this step, start a new page and begin your metre map.
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Now it's time to combine all of the elements that we've been working with together to start writing your sonnet. I'm going to talk you through writing the first two lines using my example with steps for you to write along. The first thing I'm going to do is check my rhyme map. I'm going to take the end words from my first two lines and add them into my metre map, just at the end of the line. So my first end word is "trees," and because that's one syllable,
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it fits neatly into that last column here. My second line will end in the word "belong." So because that's a two-syllable word I'm going to divide it into these two columns. And you'll notice that I've really spaced them out. That's to give myself plenty of room for drafting different ideas, crossing things out, rewriting, making mistakes, and trying different things. So: quick and easy step. Go to your rhyme map, find the end words for the first two lines,
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and put them into your metre map. And give yourself plenty of room to work.
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The next step is to take material from your early free writing about your concept and to start playing around with writing it in iambic pentameter. Okie dokie, so in my free write I like this idea about branches swaying in the breeze. I think I want to include that in my first line and I'd like to start the line with "branches sway upon the tree." Will that fit? First let me figure out whether "branches" is an iamb or a troche. Would I
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say it BRANches or branCHES? We definitely say BRANches with the stress on the first syllable, so it's a trochee. And that means that I can't start a line using that word because "branches" is stressed-unstressed and the first two beats need to be unstressed-stressed. But what I can do is bump the word "branches" over one syllable and add a monosyllabic word in front of it. For example, I could say "the BRANches."
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Now it falls into the right stress pattern: "the branches." All right, so let me test the rest of that phrase: "sway upon the tree." I'm going to write it out in my metre map. "Sway," "the," and "tree" are monosyllabic words, so they're like free spaces in BINGO: they can go anywhere. But "upon" is two syllables. Again I'm going to say it aloud to test it. Is it "UPon" or "upON"? We say "upON," unstressed then stressed, so it's an iamb. That means that
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I can fit it in here where I wanted it to go. And as I'm doing this I'm always looking at my metre map checking how many syllables I have left in the line and which ones need to have which stresses. So now I have three empty spaces left. I know I want to end the line with the word "trees" because that's what I planned in my rhyme map. How about "the branches sway upon the big tall trees"? I've made it easy for myself there by using all single syllable words. "Big tall" is
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pretty simple language, though, and I want to make it a little bit more descriptive.
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Is there another word for big and tall that has two syllables and is a trochee? Now I'm going to flip back to my original free-writing page about my subject to see if maybe there are any there. "Strong," that doesn't work ... oh "mighty," that's perfect! So now I'm going to cross out "big tall" and replace it with "mighty." Now the first line of my poem reads "The branches sway upon the mighty trees."
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I know that that's a lot, I know that it's complicated, and it will take a while to get a hang of: but it's really worth doing this work. Once you do you'll end up with lines that sound gorgeous and flow off the tongue perfectly. Let me show you one more time how to do this with my second line, more quickly this time. So I know that according to my rhyme map this line needs to end with the word "belong," so I'm thinking about belonging. I know that later in my rhyme map I
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have the words "glade" and "shade" and I want to talk about trees creating welcoming environments for people. Then maybe later for my volta I can flip the mood by talking about how we destroy trees to make paper. Save the environment y'all. So this second line should be about how I feel welcome amidst the trees. I like the image in the first line about the branches swaying and they remind me of arms beckoning me over, so I'm going to start the line with "They beckon me," which
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fits into the metre. Then I have four syllables left before my end word and I'm just going to keep it simple here: "I feel that I belong" So the line now reads "They beckon me. I feel that I belong" So you can see that before I started writing that second line, before my pen really touched the paper, I just sat for a while and thought about what I wanted to say. I think this is an important
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reminder when you're writing in form. Remember that a sonnet, even with all of its technical stuff, is a poem just like any other poem. And hopefully you're writing about something that you care about, that you're interested in. Try to lean into that rather than getting distracted by all the jargon. All right, I'm going to pass the baton to you. For this next step try writing the first two lines of your sonnet using iambic pentameter. Take as long as you need. You got this.
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I hope that went smoothly for you. And if it didn't, don't despair! This takes a while. Just keep practicing and you will get the hang of it eventually. And don't worry if you make mistakes: cross things out, replace them, try different ideas, get your metre map and your rhyme map messy. Just keep playing. One more piece of advice for drafting in metre. I think that sometimes instinctively when writing in older traditional classical forms like Shakespearean sonnets,
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people think they have to use old-timey words like "thee" and "thou" and "perchance." Let me assure you that is definitely not necessary. Your Shakespearean sonnet will be a sonnet if you follow the rules of structure. You don't have to use any antiquated words; just use your own voice. Okay, it's time for the last step of this workshop, and it's an easy one. As your metre map gets messier from trying different lines,
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you're going to need a neat place to put the lines you're happy with and keep track of your sonnet. For the last time in this workshop start a new page, title it "Sonnet Draft," and put the first two lines of your sonnet that you've just drafted into it. This is where you're going to keep track of your progress and really see the poem coming together. Okay, go for it!
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Okay, guys, at this point you have everything that you need to continue writing and editing your Shakespearean sonnet. You have your core idea and ideas and words drafted around it; you have your rhyme map and a list of rhyming words in case you need to replace things, change them out; and you have your metre map and you've already written the first two lines of your sonnet. Now all you need to
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do is keep repeating those final steps. Take words from your rhyme map, put them into your metre map, and develop lines in iambic pentameter. As you finish lines and you're happy with them, put them into your Sonnet Draft so that you can see where you're at with your poem. Soon I'm going to wrap up this workshop to allow you that time to finish developing and editing your sonnet, but before I do, some final tips. First, in terms of formatting: it's totally up to you
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how you lay out your sonnet. So you can have the whole thing be a single unbroken block of text, or you can put spaces between each of the quatrains and the final couplet, or you can have the quatrains stuck together and just have the final couplet separated. Totally up to you and whatever you prefer. Second, as I talked about in my workshop on golden shovels, in poetry it's okay if the end of the line isn't the end of the sentence. So in your sonnet you
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might have a sentence that actually spills over three different lines. That's totally okay. Some final encouragement: sonnets are labours of love. They take a lot of fiddling around with bits, hard work, inspiration, trying things out, moving them around, re-drafting, playing with things, and most of all a lot of creativity. Be patient with yourself as you work through this, persevere, and for the last time in this workshop: you got this! I would love to read the sonnets
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that you come up with. If you'd like to share, please please drop your sonnets in the Comments box below. And if you have any questions about this form, about how to write Shakespearean sonnets, that I haven't covered in the video, please ask your questions in the comments and I will get to them. If you enjoyed this video, please Like and Subscribe, and of course please share it with anyone else that you think would be interested in writing in this form.
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You can watch the rest of the workshops in the Return to Form series at this playlist and watch all of the poems in this series at this playlist. Thank you so much for watching and happy writing!
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