The poem is divided into 199 six-line stanzas. Line 1 rhymes with Line 3, and Line 2 rhymes with Line 4. Lines 5 and 6 rhyme with each other, forming a concluding couplet for each stanza. The rhyme scheme can thus be represented as ABABCC.

The meter is iambic pentameter. An iamb is a poetic foot in which an unstressed syllable is followed by a stressed syllable. A pentameter consists of five poetic feet. Line 10 provides a good example: “More white and red than doves or roses are,” as does Line 23: “A summer’s day will seem an hour but short.”

Shakespeare rings many changes on this basic iambic rhythm for emphasis and variety. One common change to the standard metrical base, known as a substitution, occurs in the first foot of a line. Shakespeare makes three such changes in the first stanza alone. “Rose-cheeked” (Line 3) is a spondee, in which both syllables are stressed. In Line 4, “Hunting” is a trochee, which consists of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed one. The following line begins, like Line 3, with a spondee, “Sick-thoughted” (Line 5).