Shakespeare and his sonnets

william shakespeare

• Born 1564 and died in 1616

• Born in Stratford-upon-Avon

• Considered the greatest English writer of all time

• His plays and sonnets have translated into all languages,musicals and ballets

information you might not hear

• Shakespeare was a teen father: he married a pregnant, 26 year old Anne Hathaway when he was 18 years old

• Was the father of twins

• Could be considered a “deadbeat dad,” as he left his wife and children for a London stage career.

• Some of his writings may have been plagiarized; he was accused of stealing ideas for plays from the writer Christopher Marlowe

Playwright or poet?

• Shakespeare is best known for his many stage plays. Some of these titles include:• Romeo and Juliet• Hamlet• King Lear• A Midsummer Night’s Dream• The Taming of the Shrew• Macbeth• Much Ado About Nothing• Julius Caesar

• However, Shakespeare is also famous for writing SONNETS!

Sonnets

• Sonnet: a lyric poem of 14 lines.

• There are two common species of sonnet, distinguished by their rhyme scheme• Italian• Shakespearean

• The Shakespearean sonnet consists of three quatrains and a couplet.

• The rhyme scheme for a Shakesperean sonnet is typically abab cdcd efef gg

Quatrain and couplet• Quatrain: a four-lined stanza in a poem.

• Couplet: a two-line portion of a poem that usually rhymes

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?Thou art more lovely and more temperate:Rough winds do shake the buds of May,And summer’s lease hath all to short a date:Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;And every fair from fair sometime declines,By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;But thy eternal summer shall not fadeNor lose possession of that fair thou owest;Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade,When in eternal lines to time thou growest:So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,So long lives this and this gives life to thee.

QuatrainQuatrainQuatrainCouplet

Iambic pentameter

• Shakespearean sonnets are written in iambic pentameter.• Iambic pentameter is a particular rhythm used in lines of

poetry.• It is measured in small groups of syllables called “feet.”• “Iambic” signifies the type of foot that is used:

unstressed syllables followed by stressed syllables.• “Pentameter” indicates that a line has five of these

“feet” or combinations of stressed and unstressed syllables.

Shakespearean turn

• Most Shakespearean sonnets include a feature called a turn.

• This turn is the moment in the poem where the theme or tone (writer’s attitude) changes in a surprising way.

Sonnet 18

• Read and annotate the sonnet for the following:• Label the quatrains and couplet• Label the rhyme scheme• Paraphrase the sonnet line-for-line• Note any poetic devices that you see present• Label the “turn” in the tone of the poem