Starting with the sonnet form

The first line of Gray’s Elegy has the right meter.for a sonnet.

“The curfew tolls the knell of parting day.”

So you must write a line to that music:

The clouds rise up and race across the sky

for example; then you need a second line.I find these two lines must be interesting.emotional , deep or symbolic.After that, the structure determines to some extent how you can develop your poem…Fourteen lines according to the pattern below.

ABAB CDCD EFEF GG

Sonnets are usually serious but it is possible to write a humorous one.Historically it was the metaphysical poets who wrote this way about love and death…John Donne is one of them.He wrote the famous poem

No man is an island

Poetry is the art of shaping words

The structure contributes to make a whole.

And writing sonnets is not just for us nerds.

Creating structures helps to create our souls.

Yet many folks are frightened by the risk

Of imperfection, criticism and pain.

But for myself, I love this frightening task.

So gaily I sit down to write again.

Though what I write may not be alpha plus.

The chance to share my feelings lures me on.

And when I travel on a London bus

I write a note before my thoughts are gone

We each can be creative in  some way

And find our happiness in being gay