Writer’s Notebook ~ Entry #1 Exploring the sonnet form and content
Print your own student copy (in black and white, without annotations) on next page. All
classes read, listened to, annotated, and highlighted the Prologue Wed., 5/20/15.
Tradition versus Desire: how the sonnet form mirrors the R&J
play
A sonnet, or “little song,” is a poetic form that depends on conflict -- its content should be full
of passion and reckless abandon… poured into a formal, strict, rule-bound shape.
We can compare the push-pull of the sonnet with the plot tensions in Romeo & Juliet. Both
contain a struggle between the desire to forge a new, never-before-known identity, and
tradition: the rules and the past history that tell us who we are, and what we are supposed to
be.
Learning Target: Read the Prologue below;
identify the two aspects of a sonnet; recognize
the tensions between desire & tradition and R&J
itself. Annotate / highlight this sonnet with
notes on the conflict that will be “played out”
between desire and tradition.
Prologue
Two households, both alike in dignity,
A
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
B
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
A
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
B
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
C
A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life;
D
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
C
Doth with their death bury their parents' strife.
D
The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,
E
And the continuance of their parents' rage,
F
Which, but their children's end, naught could remove,
E
Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage;
F
The which if you with patient ears attend,
G
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.
G
Tradition versus Desire: how the sonnet form mirrors the R&J
play
A sonnet, or “little song,” is a poetic form that depends on conflict -- its content should be full
of passion and reckless abandon… poured into a formal, strict, rule-bound shape.
We can compare the push-pull of the sonnet with the plot tensions in Romeo & Juliet. Both
Writer’s Notebook ~ Entry #1 Exploring the sonnet form and content
contain a struggle between the desire to forge a new, never-before-known identity, and
tradition: the rules and the past history that tell us who we are, and what we are supposed to
be.
Assignment: Read the Prologue below; identify the two aspects of a
sonnet (what is the form? what is the content?)
Recognize the tensions between desire & tradition in R&J itself.
Annotate / highlight this sonnet with notes on the conflict that will be
“played out” between desire and tradition.
Prologue
Two households, both alike in dignity,
A
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
B
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
A
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
B
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
C
A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life;
D
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
C
Doth with their death bury their parents' strife.
D
The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,
E
And the continuance of their parents' rage,
F
Which, but their children's end, naught could remove,
Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage;
F
The which if you with patient ears attend,
G
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.
E
G
Shakespeare also disguised sonnets within the dialogue of the play. In this next example (from
Act I, Scene 5), try to identify the tension between desire and tradition, and Romeo and Juliet
dance on the knife-edge of both.
For example, a “holy shrine” is clearly a symbol of (religious) tradition, while “lips” that are
“blushing” and “ready” are telegraphing desire.
Act I, Scene 5
ROMEO [To JULIET.]
If I profane with my unworthiest hand
A
This holy shrine, the gentle sin is this:
B
My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand
A
To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.
JULIET
B
Writer’s Notebook ~ Entry #1 Exploring the sonnet form and content
Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much,
C
Which mannerly devotion shows in this;
D
For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch,
And palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss.
D
ROMEO
Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?
C
E
JULIET
Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer.
F
ROMEO
O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do;
E
They pray — grant thou, lest faith turn to despair.
F
JULIET
Saints do not move, though grant for prayers' sake.
G
ROMEO
Then move not, while my prayer's effect I take.
G