How to Write a Crown of Sonnets

Sometimes one sonnet just isn't enough. If you need more than fourteen lines but still love the sonnet form, try this form of interlocking poetry.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. Decide upon a general theme or subject matter that can carry through seven poems. Traditionally, sonnets dealt with the many complications of love, but feel free to write whatever you like.

2. Write the first sonnet as an Italian sonnet. An Italian sonnet starts with four Italian quatrains (abbaabba), followed by an Italian sestet (cdecde) or a Sicilian sestet (cdcdcd). In the sestet, remember to have a turn in direction or thought occur.

3. Take the last line of your first poem and use it as the first line of your second. This sonnet, as well as the rest, should also be Italian sonnets. Remember that since the crown of sonnets is considered to be one poem, you cannot reuse a rhyming word except in the repeated lines.

4. Continue writing new sonnets, taking the last line of the previous poem and use it as the first line of the new sonnet. Crowns of sonnets are usually seven to fourteen poems long.

5. End the last sonnet in the sequence with the first line of the very first sonnet.

Tips & Warnings

• In the rhyme schemes described in letters (abbaabba), the "a" lines should rhyme with the other "a" lines and the "b" lines should rhyme with the other "b" lines.
• All sonnets are written in iambic pentameter