ENGLISH IV: STEVENS
Sonnet Unit Study Guide & Notes
 Stanza: group of lines in poetry
 Couplet: ________ lines
 Quatrain: _______ lines
 Sestet: ________ lines
 Octave: ___________ lines
 Rhyme Scheme:
 Pattern of ________________ designated by a lettering system
Poetic Devices & Terms
 ________________: A poet or speaker addresses an absent person, abstract
idea or object which cannot reply.
 ________________: Reference to a known event, work, or person.
 ________________: Comparison of unlike objects
 ________________: Human characteristics given to a non-human
 ________________: When vices, follies, or shortcomings are held up for
ridicule.
Sonnet Form (General)
 _______________ lines
 Primarily Iambic Pentameter: __________iambs (an iamb is an
____________ syllable followed by a stressed syllable)
 To households both alike in dignity
 In fair Verona where we lay our scene
 Sonnets typically have a defined rhyme scheme and structure of
content.
 Three of the most common sonnet forms:
 _____________________ (English)
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ENGLISH IV: STEVENS
 _____________________ (Originally an Italian form, but modified
by Englishmen Sir Phillip Sidney)
 _____________________ A variation of the English form
Sonnet Form (Shakespearean):
 Shakespearean/English Sonnet:
 14 lines
 ________________Pentameter
 Rhyme Scheme: ABABCDCDEFEFGG
 _______________ quatrains develop the problem, conflict, or issue
 Final ________________ resolves, solves, or answers
 Shakespearean Sonnets:
As we read these sonnets in class, you will break them down by rhyme
scheme, stressed v. unstressed syllables, and what each means, i.e. the theme,
tone, and stanza pattern. We will be noting the vocabulary terms above, when
they are used, and the problem and resolution in each respective sonnet.
THIS WILL BE COLLECTED FOR A GRADE!
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ENGLISH IV: STEVENS
Shakespearean Sonnets for Breakdown
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 myself, and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featur'd like him, like him with friends possess'd,
Desiring this man's art and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;
For thy sweet love remember'd such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.
SONNET 130
My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damask'd, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
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ENGLISH IV: STEVENS
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.
SONNET 116
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no; it is an ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests, and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
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