“Not you”: The Surprise Poem
lesson plan by Barbara Cobb
Shakespeare Sonnet Covered: Sonnet 145
What’s on for Today and Why:
In today’s lesson, students will explore Shakespeare’s Sonnet 145. Students will follow
the narrative structure of the poem. Students will identify the three key events in the
poem (the subject says “I hate,” the subject recognizes the speaker’s fear, the subject
modifies “I hate” with “not you”). Students will discuss the event and the speaker’s
emotional response. Students will recognize the power that words have, to affect our
emotions and feelings.
Students will move to a poetry-writing workshop. They will write a narrative “surprise”
poem akin to Sonnet 145.
Literary terms covered: narrative, narrator, persona, diction, syntax, connotation
This unit covers 4th Grade Reading Literature Standards 1,2,4,5,6, Foundational Skills 3,4,
Writing Standards 1,3, as well as a number of the Language standards.
This lesson may be completed in a traditional classroom setting or in a computer lab.
This lesson may be completed in a 90-minute class period, with additional time allotted
for revision and peer editing, or it may be divided into several shorter lessons.
What to Do:
Introducing the Sonnet: Present the sonnet. (For 4th graders, I re-edit line 12,
eliminating the word “hell”: “”from heaven to hell” is replaced with “from light to
dark.”)
Point out that this poem tells a little story – it is a narrative. Review the parts of a
narrative. Then approach the poem.
Lines 1-3: Who is the persona or narrator of the poem? Who is the other character in
this narrative, the one who says “I hate”? What is their relationship? What details in the
narrative help you to answer these questions?
Lines 4-7: How does the story progress in these four lines? What does “she” do and
why? What words or phrases help you to know what is happening?
Lines 8-14: What happens? How does “she” change the meaning of “I hate”?
Diction is word choice. Put this definition on the board. What words does “she” use in
line 2? “I hate.” What connotations does “hate” have? Positive or negative? What are
synonyms for “hate”? Have students generate synonyms and put them on the board.
Have students use a thesaurus.
Syntax is word order. Put this definition on the board. Put the complete sentence “I
hate not you” on the board. Ask students to consider the word order. Is it the order, the
syntax, that you would use? What syntax would you use? How does the syntax affect
meaning? Now add diction: how do diction and syntax work together to trigger the
events in this little story-poem?
How would the event have differed if she had said “I do not . . . hate you”?
Writing the Poem: Use the Sonnet 145 template handout. Brainstorm: in what
situations do people you know begin sentences that leave you with time to think before
they finish them? What phrases may trigger emotions? And what kind of emotions?
How can the end of the phrase affect the emotional response to the beginning of the
phrase?
Point out diction and syntax in the phrases that the students suggest. How do diction
and syntax affect meaning?
Encourage students to develop the narrative of their poems. Who are the characters?
What does the first character say to the second character, the persona or narrator in the
poem? What is the narrator’s emotional response? How does the other character
modify the remark? How do diction and syntax work in the remark as a whole?
Differentiation:
Developmental: Students may be given a situation – a relative calling them –
and an emotion – fear that something bad will happen – as context for the
writing exercise. Students then are encouraged to imagine a happy outcome
to finish their stories.
Advanced: Students may be encouraged to manipulate diction and syntax as the
triggers for both of the persona’s emotional responses.
How did it go?
Were students able to recognize the parts of the narrative in Sonnet 145? Were
they able to write narratives themselves?
Were students able to define the terms diction and syntax and recognize how
they affect meaning?