Sonnet checker
Shape a fourteen-line draft against iambic pentameter (da-DUM × 5). Same syllable and stress engine as the lyriic poetry editor — private in your browser.
Adjust syllables and stress until each line lands.
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lyriic checks fourteen lines of iambic pentameter: ten syllables with a weak–strong stress contour. First-foot inversions and feminine endings count as on-meter; stronger speech-driven disagreements still surface as stress feedback.
A short history
The sonnet (Italian sonetto, “little song”) took shape in thirteenth-century Sicily and was popularized by Petrarch in the fourteenth century. Early Italian practice settled on fourteen lines with a turn of thought (volta) and a fixed rhyme pattern — typically an octave and sestet in the Petrarchan form.
Thomas Wyatt and the Earl of Surrey brought the form into English in the sixteenth century. Surrey’s three-quatrain-plus-couplet shape, later associated with Shakespeare, became the dominant English teaching model: fourteen lines of iambic pentameter with a closing couplet.
English classrooms usually treat the sonnet as fourteen lines of iambic pentameter plus a named rhyme scheme (Shakespearean ABAB CDCD EFEF GG, Petrarchan ABBAABBA + sestet, or Spenserian interlocking). Modern poets often keep the line count and meter while loosening or dropping rhyme.
Famous poems
Sonnet 18 (“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”) — William Shakespeare
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? / Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Classic English (Shakespearean) sonnet: three quatrains and a couplet in iambic pentameter.
Sonnet 73 (“That time of year thou mayst in me behold”) — William Shakespeare
That time of year thou mayst in me behold / When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Three aging metaphors and a couplet on love strengthened by mortality.
Sonnet 130 (“My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun”) — William Shakespeare
My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun; / Coral is far more red than her lips’ red;
Anti-blazon that still follows the English rhyme and meter template.
Sonnet 43 (“How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.”) — Elizabeth Barrett Browning
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
Petrarchan structure in English; often taught for the octave–sestet turn.
When I Consider How My Light Is Spent — John Milton
When I consider how my light is spent / Ere half my days in this dark world and wide,
Miltonic / Petrarchan English sonnet; volta arrives later than the Italian mid-point.
How the sonnet meter works
In lyriic’s catalog, a sonnet is fourteen lines of iambic pentameter: ten syllables per line with expected stress on positions 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 (da-DUM × 5).
That matches the English teaching backbone shared by Shakespearean, Petrarchan, and Spenserian sonnets. Those traditions differ mainly in rhyme scheme and where the volta falls — not in the default meter.
This checker scores line count, syllable target, and the iambic stress contour when the stress pack is loaded. Named rhyme schemes (Shakespearean, Petrarchan, Spenserian) are available as colored dots in the zen editor.
Iamb (da-DUM)
An iamb is a two-syllable foot with a light beat then a strong one: da-DUM. Everyday words such as “today,” “because,” and “away” often fall into that shape.
Stack iambs and you get iambic meter. Three feet make trimeter (six syllables), four make tetrameter (eight), five make pentameter (ten)—the backbone of blank verse, sonnets, and much English lyric.
When stress-aware checking is on, lyriic marks the expected weak–strong pairs from dictionary stress and compares them to the meter’s contour. Real speech bends the ideal; the marks show the target pattern, not a claim that every poem must be perfectly regular.
Iambic 5-foot contour
Iambic pentameter expects five da-DUM feet: ten syllables with strong beats on positions 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10. It is the default contour for blank verse, English sonnets, and heroic couplets in this catalog.
lyriic checks that ten-slot weak–strong grid when the stress pack is loaded. Common literary moves — first-foot inversion and a feminine eleventh syllable — count as on-meter; stronger disagreements still surface as stress feedback.
Notes on this form
This checker scores line count, syllable target, and iambic stress only. For Shakespearean, Petrarchan, or Spenserian rhyme dots while you draft, open the zen editor with the Sonnet meter.
Common questions
- What does this sonnet checker require?
- Fourteen lines of iambic pentameter: about ten syllables each with an unstressed–stressed contour (da-DUM × 5). That matches English teaching practice for Shakespearean and many Petrarchan sonnets in English.
- Does lyriic check the rhyme scheme?
- Not on this page — the checker stays on syllables and stress. Open the zen editor with the Sonnet meter to pick Shakespearean, Petrarchan, or Spenserian and see colored rhyme dots beside each line.
- Is my draft uploaded?
- No. Syllable and stress checks run locally in your browser. lyriic is local-first and does not require an account.
- Can I continue this draft in the editor?
- Yes. Use Continue in the editor with Sonnet (iambic pentameter) — if you edited the checker (not just the stock sample), that text carries into the editor once. Nothing is uploaded. Continue in the editor with Sonnet (iambic pentameter)