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Shakespearean Sonnets

English 1

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William Shakespeare

Review Terms! You should ALREADY know this

• Figurative language / figures of speech – language not meant to be taken literally; it is expressive. Examples of figurative language are things such as metaphor, simile, hyperbole, etc.

• Metaphor – a direct comparison between two unlike things without using the words “like” or “as”

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• Simile – Compares two unlike things using the words “like” or “as”

• Personification – gives human characteristics to non-living things

• Onomatopoeia – words that imitate sounds

• Imagery – descriptive language that appeals to the five senses. Creates images!

• Symbol – any object that represents something other than itself

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Poetry TermsPoetry is often phonetic. It has SOUND and mimics

music. Most poems used very specific diction and are emotionally charged. They often use figurative language.

• Rhythm – pattern created by stressed and unstressed syllables (you’ll see what this means in a bit)

• Rhyme – repetition of similar sounds• Rhyme scheme – pattern of end rhymes• Free verse – does not rhyme• Alliteration – repetition of consonant sounds

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Poetry Terms Cont.

• Blank verse – unrhymed iambic pentameter

• Connotation – ideas associated with a certain word

• Denotation – dictionary definition of a word

• Couplet – pair of rhyming lines at the end of a sonnet

• Diction – author’s word choice

• Meter – the rhythmical pattern of a poem

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Poetry Terms Cont.

• Tone – author’s attitude toward the subject (this one is SUPER important—don’t forget it ever!)

• Mood – feeling created in the reader

• Syntax – how words are arranged in sentence

• Stanza - an arrangement of a certain number of lines, usually four or more, sometimes having a fixed length, meter, or rhyme scheme, forming a division of a poem.

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What is a sonnet?

*A sonnet is a fourteen-line poem in iambic pentameter.

*When you see this bullet, please fill out your notes.

Iambic what?

Oh dear, this isgoing to be aweird lesson!

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Iambic Pentameter

•  Iambic Pentameter is the rhythm and meter in which poets and playwrights wrote in Elizabethan England. (Queen Elizabeth was the ruler of England during most of Shakespeare’s adult life.) It is a meter that Shakespeare uses.

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Heartbeat.Quite simply, it sounds like

this: dee DUM, dee DUM, dee DUM, dee DUM, dee DUM. *Iambic pentameter is a line of poetry with five iambic feet-- Ten syllables with five unstressed and five stressed syllables.* It is the first and last sound we ever hear, it is the rhythm of the human heart beat.

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Pentameter?• *An ‘iamb’ is ‘dee Dum’ (or two syllables) – it is the

heart beat.

• Penta is from the Greek for five.

• Meter is really the pattern

• *So, there are five iambs per line! Ten syllables total.

• (Iambic penta meter )

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• It is percussive and attractive to the ear and has an effect on the listener's central nervous system. An Example of Pentameter from Shakespeare: but SOFT what LIGHT through YONder WINdow BREAKS

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Syllables, in case you’ve forgotten

• What is a syllable?

• Well, there are three syllables (separate sounds) in the word syllable!

• “But soft, what light through yonder window breaks.”

• How many syllables are there in that quotation?

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• “But soft, what light through yonder window breaks.”

• Let’s break up this line into iambic pentameter together on the board.

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U / U / U / U / U / But, soft!/ What light/ through yon/der win/dow breaks?

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Why is it important that we know what iambic pentameter is?

Almost every single line in Romeo in Juliet is in iambic pentameter. Impressive, right?

Why do you think Shakespeare wrote his plays in iambic pentameter?

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Back to sonnets.

• Well, it is a poetic form.

• But it has a certain structure as well as a rhyming pattern.

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Rhyming patterns

• *The Shakespearean sonnet has three quatrains (or stanzas that contain four lines) followed by a couplet. The rhyme scheme is: abab cdcd efef gg.

• More head scratching?

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Quatrain?

• *Quatrains are four line stanzas of any kind

• *A couplet is a pair of rhyming lines In sonnets they are found at the end of the poem.

• I have divided the following sonnet into the three quatrains.

• You will also see the rhyming pattern

• marked out for you.

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Sonnet 18 Shall I/ compare/ thee to /a sum/mer's day? (a)Thou art/ more love/ly and more/ temperate: (b)Rough winds /do shake/ the dar/ling buds /of May, (a)And sum/mer's lease/ hath all/ too short/ a date: (b)Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, (c)And often is his gold complexion dimmed, (d)And every fair from fair sometime declines, (c)By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed: (d)But thy eternal summer shall not fade, (e)Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st, (f)Nor shall death brag thou wand'rest in his shade, (e)When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st, (f)So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, (g)So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. (g)

Quatrain 1

Quatrain 2

Quatrain 3

Couplet

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What does it mean?• I think I shall compare you to a summer day

But, you know, you're prettier and even better, even calmBecause sometimes it gets windy and the buds on the trees get shaken offAnd sometimes summer doesn't last very longSometimes it's too hotAnd everything gorgeous loses its looksBy getting hit by a truck Or just because everyone and everything gets old and ugly and shabbyBUT (and here's the turn) you're going to keep your looks for ever Your beauty will last for everI'm going to make sure that you never lose your good looksAnd that nasty old Death can never brag about owning youBecause I shall write this poem about youAs long as men can breathe (are you breathing?) As long as men can see (are you looking at this poem?)Then this poem lives, and it gives life and memory to your beauty.

Sonnet 29• When in disgrace with Fortune and men's eyes,

I all alone beweep my outcast state,And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,And look upon my self and curse my fate,Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,Desiring this man's art, and that man's scope,With what I most enjoy contented least,Yet in these thoughts my self almost despising,Haply I think on thee, and then my state,(Like to the lark at break of day arisingFrom sullen earth sings hymns at heaven's gate, For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings,That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

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What does my favorite sonnet mean?• When I feel and unlucky and as if no one likes me

And I feel all alone and cryAnd it's as if my prayers to heaven have no power at all because no one is listeningAnd I feel sorry for myself and think that 'm the unluckiest person aliveI wish that I had that persons opportunitiesThat I looked like that cute person and was as popular as the most popular person in my classWishing that I had that man's talent, and that man's understanding of difficult conceptsNot at all happy with the things I usually enjoy.Even then, almost hating myself for thinking this wayPerhaps my thoughts think about you, and then my soul,Just like the lark that sings at the moment the light of dayBreaks over the cold earth, sings a song filled with joy and light Because I remember the sweet love we share, and the richness that it brings And, at that point, remembering what we have together, I wouldn't changemy present condition even with a king.

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FYI

• William Shakespeare's sonnets are stories about a handsome boy, or rival poet, and the mysterious and aloof "dark" lady they both love.

• The sonnets fall into three clear groupings: Sonnets 1 to 126 are addressed to, or concern, a young man; Sonnets 127-152 are addressed to, or concern, a dark lady (dark in the sense of her hair, her facial features, and her character), and Sonnets 153-154 are fairly free adaptations of two classical Greek poems.

• The most popular of the William Shakespeare Sonnets are Sonnets 018, 029, 116, 126 and 130.

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AssignmentYour first assignment with sonnets is to write your own!

You DO NOT have to write it in iambic pentameter, although you will get extra credit if you do. It is very difficult, and you might appreciate Shakespeare’s work if you do.

You DO have to use the sonnet rhyme scheme though: ABAB CDCD EFEF GG

If it makes it easier, you can begin with the opening of Sonnet 18.

“Shall I compare thee to….”Compare someone in your life to something else. An animal, weather, something beautiful in nature. It can be positive or negative.

Now it’s up to you to be creative.