“Sonnet 76” follows the classic English sonnet form (sometimes called the Shakespearean sonnet). An English sonnet is composed of 14 lines written in iambic pentameter. The poem is presented as one single stanza, but it follows a rhyme scheme of three quatrains followed by a couplet, or three sets of four lines followed by a set of two lines. The rhyme scheme used throughout the stanza is ABAB CDCD EFEF GG.

The English sonnet strictly follows iambic pentameter, or a series of 10 syllables alternating between unstressed and stressed syllables. “Sonnet 76,” however, does have some variation in its meter. The first line, for example—“Why is my verse so barren of new pride” (Line 1)—opens on a stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables. The seventh line, by contrast—“That every word doth almost tell my name” (Line 7)—is written in perfect iambic pentameter. The poem adheres to the form enough to retain a sense of rhythm and balance, while the variants give the poem a conversational quality, as if the poet was speaking directly to the reader.