The Prologue to the play is a sonnet. [Scene Summary]

After the Prince has broken up fight between the Capulets and Montagues, Montague asks Benvolio who started the fight. Benvolio's answer ends in a couplet, "Came more and more and fought on part and part, / Till the prince came, who parted either part" (1.1.114-115). Lady Montague then asks where Romeo is, and in the following conversation most of the speeches end in couplets.

When Romeo appears, the Montagues depart in order to leave Benvolio to discover what's wrong with Romeo. After a short interchange with Benvolio, Romeo starts to talk about his hopeless love (for Rosaline, although her name is not mentioned). He speaks mostly in couplets, beginning with "Alas, that love, whose view is muffled still, / Should, without eyes, see pathways to his will!" (1.1.171-172). Romeo's final speech of the scene is about how he can never forget how fair his love is. The speech is not in couplets, but three of the nine lines end with the word "fair," and two others end in "forget"; this is probably because Romeo is talking about how he can never forget how fair his beloved is. [Scene Summary]