Understanding Shakespeare 
A sonnet is a 14-line poem with a specific rhyme scheme.
The sonnet below is written by William Shakespeare, and it
defines or describes true love. We’ll read it and then you’ll
need to answer the following questions.
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 wand’ring 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.
1. Number the lines, then think of simpler synonyms for impediments, alters,
tempests – (use smart phone if necessary - it’ll help you with the meaning of the
sonnet).
2. What is Shakespeare’s position regarding true love? How did you come to find
that position? (What lines from the poem helped you come to your conclusions?)
3.
This sonnet has the specified rhyme scheme (abab/cdcd/efef/gg), but there are a
couple spots where he uses approximate rhyme. Find them and write them down.
4. Find the example of personification in the sonnet. Explain what it means.
5. I printed this sonnet on my husband’s and my wedding program when we got
married. Considering the message/theme of the poem, why would I do that?
(Other than being an English/Shakespeare nerd )
Understanding Shakespeare 
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 dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this and this gives life to thee.
1. Number the lines, underline troublesome words & look up definitions.
2. Group the sonnet into three 4-line groups and then one 2-line group at the end.
Summarize what each group of lines means in your own words.
3. Explain what you think the speaker is saying in this sonnet.
4. See any poetic techniques? Approximate rhyme? Personification? Write down the
examples (with line numbers) and explain what they mean.
5. Remember the topic/theme of Sonnet 116, how is this sonnet (#18) similar to
116? State the theme of this sonnet first, then explain any similarities.