Ask a river how it knows which way to go, and let it answer in the sestet.Octave: your question from the bank. Sestet: the river, in the first person.
Ask the oldest thing in your house what it has watched, in a sonnet split eight lines and six.Octave: describe it and ask. Sestet: its answer, starting with the earliest year.
Ask what grown-ups mean by we'll see, and let the sestet translate.Octave: three times you heard it. Sestet: what it meant each time.
Ask why the walk home is shorter than the walk there, in a sonnet with the answer in its sestet.Octave: the long way out. Sestet: what the feet already know.
Ask why you remember the smell of a place longer than its address, and answer in the last six lines.Octave: three places and what each smelled of. Sestet: your best guess at why.
If a tree could take one step a year, where would it go? Ask and answer in fourteen lines.Octave: where it stands and what it can see. Sestet: the direction, and the reason.
Is it still your hometown if every store has changed? Put the question in an octave and decide in the sestet.Octave: what used to be on each corner. Sestet: yes or no, and why.
What does a lighthouse do in the daytime? Give the question eight lines and the answer six.Octave: the tower at noon, with nothing to do. Sestet: what it is saving up.
What does the last person awake in a town know? Ask it in eight lines and answer in six.Octave: the dark windows, one by one. Sestet: what only that person hears.
What would your shadow say if it could argue back? Question in the octave, answer in the sestet.Octave: what you make it do all day. Sestet: its reply.
Where does a tune go when you stop humming it? Ask in eight lines and answer in six.Octave: the tune and where you lost it. Sestet: where it turns up again.
Why does a song you could not stand at ten sound good now? Write the sonnet that works it out.Octave: the song then, and where you heard it. Sestet: what changed, you or the song.
Write a sonnet asking who first whistled, and at what.Octave: your guesses. Sestet: the one you would like to be true.
Write a sonnet that asks what the dog thinks about at the window all day.Octave: the question, asked from the sidewalk. Sestet: the dog answers.
Write a sonnet that asks why people wave at boats.Octave: the wave from the shore. Sestet: the answer from the deck.
A turn at line nine 15
Apologize for eight lines, and turn at line nine to the part you are not sorry for.Turn: honesty. Line nine could begin: And yet.
Be completely sure you are right for eight lines of a sonnet. Start line nine with Unless.Turn: the doubt. Keep the last six lines quieter than the first eight.
Call a winter garden dead for eight lines, then turn to what is going on under the soil.Turn: from what shows to what does not. Line nine could begin: Underneath.
Complain about a little brother or sister for eight lines, then turn at line nine.Turn: the week they were away. Line nine could begin: Then the house.
Describe a photo of a parent at your age for eight lines, then turn to what the photo cannot show.Turn: from inside the frame to outside it. Line nine could begin: But nobody.
Give eight lines to how badly you wanted to quit, and turn on the first time it worked.Turn: one good try. Line nine could begin: Until.
Imagine everything that could go wrong on a first day for eight lines, then say at line nine what did happen.Turn: from worry to the real day. Line nine could begin: What happened was.
List the rules you were given as a child for eight lines, then turn to the one you now pass on.Turn: from hearing a rule to saying it. Line nine could begin: Now I.
List what a friend borrowed and never gave back for eight lines, then turn to what you would lend her now.Turn: from keeping score to giving. Line nine could begin: Still.
Look at a mountain from far off for eight lines. At line nine you are standing on it.Turn: up close, it disappears. Line nine could begin: From here.
Pack a house into boxes for eight lines, and at line nine wake up in the new one.Turn: the first night somewhere else. Line nine could begin: Tonight.
Praise being alone for eight lines of a sonnet, then let someone knock at line nine.Turn: the knock. The sestet decides whether you open the door.
Praise the noise of a city for eight lines, then name the one sound you would take out.Turn: from all of it to one thing. Line nine could begin: Except.
Spend eight lines against mornings, and turn at line nine on the one morning that changed your mind.Turn: one exact day. Line nine could begin: Once, though.
Wish for summer to end for eight lines, and turn on the first cold morning.Turn: you got what you asked for. Line nine could begin: And now.
Love for a place 15
A grandparent's kitchen deserves a sonnet. Write it.English pattern. A quatrain for the smells, one for the sounds, one for the table; couplet: the door.
Address a sonnet to the tree you climbed and the branch you never reached.Italian pattern. Octave: the climb. Sestet: the branch, seen from the ground today.
Admit, in a love sonnet, that you miss the town you could not wait to leave.Italian pattern. Octave: why you left. Sestet: what you defend it against now.
The back booth of a diner where you always sit: give it a sonnet.English pattern. A quatrain each for the seat, the window and the menu; couplet: the bill.
Compose a love sonnet to a shortcut only you use.Italian pattern. Octave: the route, turn by turn. Sestet: what it has saved you besides time.
The end of a dock on a lake: write it a sonnet.English pattern. A quatrain for morning, noon and dusk; couplet: the jump.
Fourteen lines for the creek that runs behind the houses.English pattern. A quatrain each for spring, summer and fall; couplet: the creek under ice.
The front steps on a summer night: write their sonnet.Italian pattern. Octave: who sits where. Sestet: the hour everyone goes in.
Give fourteen lines to a roadside stand that opens only in July.English pattern. A quatrain each for the sign, the table and the cash box; couplet: August.
Make a sonnet for a place you know only from a grandparent's stories.Italian pattern. Octave: the place as told. Sestet: what you suspect was left out.
Praise a public basketball court with a bent rim in fourteen lines.Italian pattern. Octave: everything wrong with it. Sestet: why you keep coming back.
Praise the kitchen table where homework, bills and birthdays all happened, in a sonnet.English pattern. One quatrain for each of the three; couplet: the scratch you made.
Send a sonnet to a city you have visited exactly once.Italian pattern. Octave: the one day you had. Sestet: what you are saving for the second.
Write a love sonnet to a place that is not there anymore: a store that closed, a field built over.Italian pattern. Octave: walk through it from memory. Sestet: what stands there now.
Write a love sonnet to the ugliest building in your town.Italian pattern. Octave: defend it. Sestet: say what the street would lose without it.
A closing couplet to earn 15
Argue for staying in bed in three quatrains, then get up in the couplet.Couplet as refutation: two lines undo twelve.
Compare a friend to three kinds of weather in three quatrains, then drop the comparisons and say it plainly in the couplet.Couplet as refutation: no weather, just the friend.
Describe one person in three quatrains by their shoes, their handwriting and their laugh. Name them only in the couplet.Couplet as conclusion: the name, and what you call them.
Fill three quatrains with one day's small disasters, and earn a couplet that calls it a good day anyway.Couplet as refutation: the reason has to be in the twelve lines already.
Give a quatrain each to three things you lost, and earn a couplet about what you would not trade to get them back.Couplet as conclusion: the three losses add up to something kept.
Give instructions for skipping a stone in three quatrains, and a couplet for the part nobody can teach.Couplet as amplification: what the hand learns on its own.
Open each of three quatrains with I used to think. Open the couplet with Now.Couplet as refutation: what replaced all three.
Spend three quatrains proving that a dog is the best pet, and hand the couplet to the cat.Couplet as refutation: the cat needs only two lines.
Tell the past, the present and the future of one pair of boots in three quatrains, with a couplet for who wears them next.Couplet as conclusion: the boots outlast the walker.
Three people taught you three things: a quatrain each. The couplet is what you taught one of them back.Couplet as amplification: the lesson goes the other way.
Three quatrains say what the town thinks of the old man on the porch. The couplet is what he thinks of the town.Couplet as refutation: the view from the porch.
Three seasons get a quatrain each. Write the fourth season in the closing couplet.Couplet as amplification: two lines must hold what the others took four to say.
Three sounds from when you were small get a quatrain each. Earn a couplet about the one you still hear.Couplet as conclusion: one sound is left standing.
Write a road trip as three quatrains for morning, afternoon and night, and arrive in the couplet.Couplet as conclusion: the engine off.
Write three quatrains, each a room of your home at a different hour, and end on a couplet about the door.Couplet as conclusion: leaving, or coming in.
How it works
These sonnet writing prompts hand you the hard part of the form first: where the poem changes direction. A river answers a question, a complaint about mornings gives way, a cat gets the last two lines.
Read the full guide
The Italian pattern: eight lines, then six
An Italian sonnet is an octave of eight lines and a sestet of six, rhymed abba abba and then cdecde or cdcdcd. The octave sets out a question, an argument or an observation, and the sestet answers it. The question prompts and the line-nine prompts are built on this pattern.
The English pattern: twelve lines and a couplet
An English sonnet is three quatrains and a couplet, rhymed abab cdcd efef gg. The couplet usually arrives as a conclusion, an amplification or a refutation of the twelve lines before it, and each couplet prompt says which one to aim for.
Write the turn first. Line nine or the couplet tells you what the earlier lines are for.
Rhyme last. Get fourteen lines of sense down, then trade end words until the scheme holds.
Questions and answers
What is a good writing prompt about sonnets?
Try the last person awake in a town, with the dark windows in the octave and what only that person hears in the sestet. Or tell the past, the present and the future of one pair of boots in three quatrains.
How many lines does a sonnet have?
Fourteen. Traditionally they are written in iambic pentameter: five pairs of syllables to a line, each pair an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one, which usually comes to ten syllables.
What is the turn in a sonnet?
A shift in the direction of the argument or the story, also called the volta. In the Italian pattern it comes between the eighth and ninth lines. In the English pattern the closing couplet plays the pivotal role.
Does a sonnet have to rhyme?
Traditionally it follows one of several rhyme schemes. Modern poets have stretched the form, and some sonnets today are recognizable only by their fourteen lines. Keep the turn, and rhyme where it helps.
Do sonnets have to be about love?
No. The first sonnets were mainly about romantic love, and in time any subject came to be accepted. The love on this list is for places: a diner booth, a creek, the town you could not wait to leave.