An Introduction to Shakespeare’s Sonnets
You have had a class introduction to one of William Shakespeare’s sonnets. We have looked at one
sonnet in particular, sonnet 18.
Use the following websites, or more, to find more detailed information on this and other sonnets.
Your work will be discussed in class next lesson.
http://www.shakespeares-sonnets.com/
http://www.xs4all.nl/~fmlekens/Q1609/links.htm#nl
http://nfs.sparknotes.com/
1. What are the characteristics of a sonnet?
2. There are two types of sonnets.
a. What are they called?
b. What is the difference between them?
3. a. What is the rhyme scheme of sonnet 18?
b. What type of sonnet is it?
4. What is meant by the following lines/phrases?
a. The eye of heaven (l.5)
b. Summer’s lease hath all too short a date (l.4)
c. So long … to thee (ll.13-14)
5. What is a volta/chute?
6. Where and what is the volta/chute in sonnet 18?
7. How many sonnets did Shakespeare write?
8. Find and copy 2 Dutch translations of sonnet 18. Explain which one you prefer as a
translation, and why.
9. Find and copy another of Shakespeare’s sonnets, and answer questions 3 and 6 for the
sonnet you’ve chosen. Do NOT forget to write down the number of the sonnet.
10. Also, explain the meaning of 2 lines in your sonnet.
11. Write a sonnet yourself, either in Dutch or in English. Stick to the rules of a sonnet!
XVIII
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.