SHAKESPEAREAN
SONNETS
English 11
WHAT IS A SONNET?
 A sonnet is a fourteen-line poem in iambic pentameter.
ABOUT SONNETS
 In Shakespeare’s time, the popular topic for sonnets was LOVE-or a theme related to love
 Sonnets are often written as part of a series, with each sonnet as a
sequel to the previous one.
 However, many sonnets could stand alone as separate poems.
PETRARCHAN SONNET
 Divided into two sections:
• an octave (ABBA ABBA),
• and a sestet (usually CDE CDE, CDC CDC, or CDC DCD).
 Typically the octave will describe a problem, and the sestet will
propose a resolution.
SHAKESPEAREAN SONNET
 Divided into 3 quatrains and 1 couplet:
• ABAB CDCD EFEF GG
 Like the Italian Sonnet, typically the English sonnet will present a
problem in the quatrains, and suggest a resolution in the couplet.
 The meter of Shakespeare's sonnets is iambic pentameter
(except in Sonnet 145).
POETIC FORM
 Sonnets have a certain structure as well as a rhyming pattern.
 The Shakespearean sonnet has three quatrains followed by a
couplet, the scheme being: abab cdcd efef gg.
 Quatrains are four line stanzas of any kind
IAMBIC PENTAMETER
 Iambic Pentameter is the rhythm and metre in which poets and
playwrights wrote in Elizabethan England. It is a metre that
Shakespeare uses.
HEARTBEAT
 Quite simply, iambic pentameter sounds like this:
• dee DUM, dee DUM, dee DUM, dee DUM, dee DUM.
 It consists of a line of 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 heartbeat.
PENTAMETER
 An ‘iamb’ is ‘dee Dum’ – the heart beat.
 ‘Penta’ is from the Greek for five.
 Meter is the pattern
 So, there are five iambs per line (iambic penta meter)
IAMBIC PENTAMETER
 Iambic Pentameter 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
BREAKS
WINdow
SYLLABLES
 “But soft, what light through yonder window breaks.”
 How many syllables are there in that quotation?
 Underline the stressed words.
SONNET 18
– WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
 Quatrain 1 (four-line stanza)
A Shall I compare thee to a summer’s Day?
B Thou art more lovely and more temper ATE :
A Rough winds do shake the darling buds of MAY,
B And summer's lease hath all too short a DATE :
SONNET 18
 Quatrain 2 (four-line stanza)
C Sometime too hot the eye of heaven SHINES,
D And often is his gold complexion DIMM'D;
C And every fair from fair sometime de CLINES,
D By chance or nature's changing course un TRIMM'D;
SONNET 18
 Quatrain 3 (four-line stanza)
E But thy eternal summer shall not FADE ,
F
Nor lose possession of that fair thou OWEST ,
E Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his SHADE ,
F
When in eternal lines to time thou GROWEST ;
SONNET 18
 Couplet (two rhyming lines)
G So long as men can breathe ,or eyes can SEE;
G So long lives this, and this gives life to THEE .
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;
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.
ANALYZING SONNET 18
 Analyze Sonnet 130 by answering questions #1-9
 Questions are on the last page of the handout