SHAKESPEARE SONNETS: Exploring verse
in Year 7
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Shakespeare’s Meter: Exercises in the iambic pentameter
On the front cover there is a piece of music: Henry Mancini’s
pink panther theme… de dum, de dum, de dum de dum de
dum….
The meter (the beat or rhythm) of the sonnets is exactly
the same.
Look at this example
“Thou art/ more lov/ely and /more tem/perate”
de dum/ de dum/ de dum/, de dum/de dum
5 units of rhythm – called FEET and made up of 5 stresses
or 10 syllables… Each “de dum” is called an IAMB.
YOUR TURN: Rather than love poetry, I want 3 couplets in
Iambic Pentameter about what you will be doing this
evening…
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 Sonnets have 14 lines. No exceptions1
 Shakespeare divided his sonnets into 3 groups of
4 lines –called quatrains- and a pair of lines
called a couplet.
 The poems rhyme in a set pattern. Can you work
it out?
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 Also, every Sonnet contains a “volta”. This word
is Italian for “jump” and it suggests a point in the
poem where the writer shifts the point of view or
“turns” the poem.
 Look at any of the poems that follow and see if
you can work out where the volta comes
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1
This is a lie: there are always exceptions….
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Sonnet 12
When I do count the clock that tells the time,
And see the brave day sunk in hideous night;
When I behold the violet past prime,
And sable curls, all silvered o'er with white;
When lofty trees I see barren of leaves,
Which erst from heat did canopy the herd,
And summer's green all girded up in sheaves,
Borne on the bier with white and bristly beard,
Then of thy beauty do I question make,
That thou among the wastes of time must go,
Since sweets and beauties do themselves forsake
And die as fast as they see others grow;
And nothing 'gainst Time's scythe can make
defence
Save breed, to brave him when he takes thee
hence.
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Let’s look at the structure of Sonnet 12
Where does the VOLTA come? What word is
used to indicate the change in direction?
Annotate your copies to show that you
understand the technical language we are using.
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SONNET 18:
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of
May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed,
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course
untrimmed:
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,
Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his
shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st,
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
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Let’s consider Sonnet 18 in detail:
Write a short PEE paragraph to explain how
Shakespeare uses metaphor to show how much
he is in love. Write this in your books under the
heading “Sonnet 18: expressing love through
metaphor”
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SONNET 55
Not marble, nor the gilded monuments
Of princes, shall outlive this powerful rhyme;
But you shall shine more bright in these
contents
Than unswept stone, besmear'd with sluttish
time.
When wasteful war shall statues overturn,
And broils root out the work of masonry,
Nor Mars his sword, nor war's quick fire shall
burn
The living record of your memory.
'Gainst death, and all oblivious enmity
Shall you pace forth; your praise shall still
find room
Even in the eyes of all posterity
That wear this world out to the ending doom.
So, till the judgment that yourself arise,
You live in this, and dwell in lovers' eyes
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In the SESTET of Sonnet 55 Shakespeare
alters the rhythm. Look at lines 9-14.
Which words are stressed?
Can you suggest a reason for Shakespeare
changing the opening foot of line 10 from an
IAMB to a TROCHEE2?
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What do you think this poem is “about”?
Justify your response by using the text as
evidence.
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A trochee is an iamb the other way round… “dum de” so the stress is reversed
and the word is made important…
2
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SONNET 71
No longer mourn for me when I am dead
Than you shall hear the surly sullen bell
Give warning to the world that I am fled
From this vile world with vilest worms to
dwell:
Nay, if you read this line, remember not
The hand that writ it, for I love you so,
That I in your sweet thoughts would be
forgot,
If thinking on me then should make you woe.
O! if, I say, you look upon this verse,
When I perhaps compounded am with clay,
Do not so much as my poor name rehearse;
But let your love even with my life decay;
Lest the wise world should look into your
moan,
And mock you with me after I am gone.
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Sonnet 71
Read the sonnet and look up any words
you do not understand.
Discuss the poem with a neighbour
What is the subject matter of this
poem?
What does Shakespeare advise the
reader in the Sestet?
Write 2 PEARL paragraphs to answer
this question:
“What does Shakespeare suggest to his
lover about remembering a dead loved
one?”
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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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Sonnet 116 has many wonderful
images. In this task, you will need to
show me your creative side.
Read the poem carefully and discuss it
with a neighbour.
Highlight the METAPHORS used by
Shakespeare to present love.
Discuss why he has chosen those
specific images, for example, the “star
to every wand’ring bark” is a strong
image. The Pole Star was a fixed
navigational point and suggests, or
connotes, safety, relief, guidance and
other similar ideas. If love is
represented as the star, what is being
represented as the “bark” and why is it
wandering?
Choose one of the metaphors and make
an artistic representation of it. You
must include the lines ot which you
refer.
On the next page there are some images
from another class as inspiration
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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 damasked, 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,
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.
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Your Turn
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Helpful Hints
Nothing is finished unless it is
excellent… pass your sonnet to a
neighbour to get some advice.
Then you can have a go to redraft your
writing. Try to make the flow as
natural as you can!
A dictionary of rhyme might be helpful,
but try to look up the words you
choose. The poem must make sense!
http://www.rhymezone.com/
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ESSAY TASK:
“Which of these sonnets do you prefer
and why?”
Try to use as much of the technical
language you have learned as you can
in your answer, and be sure to write in
clear PEARL paragraphs.
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SONNETS: Technical language
Quatrain
Couplet
Rhyme
Meter
Iambic pentameter
iamb
volta
metaphor
trochee
Octave
Sestet
JONATHAN PEEL JLS 2015