English
Understanding Shakespeare: “Sonnet 18”
Foundation Lesson—High School
About This Lesson
This lesson models for students how to perform a literary analysis by showing how devices such
as diction, imagery, figures of speech, and sound create thematic meaning. Engagement with
more complex texts such as Shakespearean sonnets will sharpen students’ perception of the way
diction and imagery create theme. Sonnets are short enough to be analyzed in a class period yet
complex enough to require multiple readings to determine meaning, and they allow students
access to elevated themes and rich language in a classroom-friendly setting. Students often enjoy
analyzing poetry and seeing how the form of the poem functions, and the creative writing
activity, which includes a sonnet graph, gives them a concrete tool to identify and understand
iambic pentameter. As part of the lesson’s cumulative assessment, students are encouraged to
create original sonnets which contain elevated, abstract themes.
Passages for LTF® lessons are selected to challenge students, while lessons and activities make
texts accessible. Guided practice with challenging texts allows students to gain the proficiency
necessary to read independently at or above grade level.
Level
Grades Nine and Ten
Connection to Common Core Standards for English Language Arts
LTF Foundation Lessons are designed to be used across grade levels and therefore are aligned to
the CCSS Anchor Standards. Teachers should consult their own grade-level-specific Standards.
The activities in this lesson allow teachers to address the following Common Core Standards.
Explicitly addressed in this lesson
Code
Standard
R.1
Read closely to determine what the text says
explicitly and to make logical inferences from it.
Cite specific textual evidence when writing or
speaking to support conclusions drawn from the
text.
Level of
Thinking
Understand
Depth of
Knowledge
III
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T E A C H E R
Objectives
Students will
 explain how literary elements such as diction and imagery reveal thematic meaning.
 analyze how poetic structure creates or impacts meaning.
 explain how devices such as figurative language or sound reveal thematic meaning.
 produce a style analysis of the poem.
 create an original sonnet that conforms to appropriate structure and uses literary elements
to create a theme.
Teacher Overview—Understanding Shakespeare: “Sonnet 18”
R.2
R.3
R.4
R.5
R.10
L.3
L.5
W.4
W.5
W.10
SL.1
Implicitly addressed in this lesson
Code
Standard
L.1
L.2
Demonstrate command of the conventions of
standard English grammar and usage when writing
or speaking.
Demonstrate command of the conventions of
standard English capitalization, punctuation, and
spelling when writing.
Analyze
III
Analyze
III
Analyze
III
Analyze
III
Understand
II
Understand
II
Understand
II
Create
III
Create
III
Evaluate
III
Apply
III
Understand
II
Level of
Thinking
Understand
Depth of
Knowledge
I
Understand
I
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T E A C H E R
W.2
Determine central ideas or themes of a text and
analyze their development; summarize the key
supporting details and ideas.
Analyze how and why individuals, events, and ideas
develop and interact over the course of a text.
Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a
text, including determining technical, connotative,
and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific
word choices shape meaning or tone.
Analyze the structure of texts, including how
specific sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions
of the text (e.g., a section, chapter, scene or stanza)
relate to each other and the whole.
Read and comprehend complex literary and
informational texts independently and proficiently.
Apply knowledge of language to understand how
language functions in different contexts, to make
effective choices for meaning or style, and to
comprehend more fully when reading or listening.
Demonstrate understanding of word relationships
and nuances in word meanings.
Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and
convey complex ideas and information clearly and
accurately through the effective selection,
organization, and analysis of content.
Produce clear and coherent writing in which the
development, organization, and style are appropriate
to task, purpose, and audience.
Develop and strengthen writing as needed by
planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a
new approach
Write routinely over extended time frames (time for
research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time
frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range
of tasks, purposes, and audiences.
Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of
conversations and collaborations with diverse
partners, building on others’ ideas and expressing
their own clearly and persuasively.
Teacher Overview—Understanding Shakespeare: “Sonnet 18”
L.3
L.6
Apply knowledge of language to understand how
language functions in different contexts, to make
effective choices for meaning or style, and to
comprehend more fully when reading or listening.
Acquire and use accurately a range of general
academic and domain-specific words and phrases
sufficient for reading, writing, speaking, and
listening at the college and career readiness level;
demonstrate independence in gathering vocabulary
knowledge when considering a word or phrase
important to comprehension or expression.
Understand
II
Understand
II
T T EE AA CC HH EE RR
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Teacher Overview—Understanding Shakespeare: “Sonnet 18”
LTF Skill Focus
The foundation for LTF English lessons is the Skill Progression Chart that identifies key skills
for each domain, beginning with grade 6 and adding more complex skills at each subsequent
grade level while reinforcing skills introduced at previous grade levels. The Skill Focus for each
individual lesson identifies the skills actually addressed in that lesson.
Understand
Apply
Close Reading
written, spoken, and visual texts
purposeful use of language for effect
Create
Composition
written, spoken, and visual products
Types (modes)
Expository
analytical
Multiple Modes
Imaginative
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T T EE AA CC HH EE RR
Reading Strategies
Determining author’s
purpose
Inference
Paraphrase
Literary Elements
Analogy
Diction
connotation
denotation
vocabulary
Imagery
Rhetorical Shift
Theme
Figures of Speech
(Figurative Language)
Metaphor
Personification
Sound Devices
Meter
Rhyme
Rhythm
Literary Techniques
Allusion
Literary Forms
Verse
Sonnet
Elizabethan
Petrarchan
Levels of Thinking
Analyze
Evaluate
Grammar
Teacher Overview—Understanding Shakespeare: “Sonnet 18”
Connections to AP*
Analysis of diction, imagery, and the literary devices that contribute to thematic meaning is a
skill that students must demonstrate on both the free response and multiple choice sections of AP
English Literature and AP English Language exams. The Literature exam contains a free
response prompt and multiple choice questions on poetry, so it is critical that students develop an
understanding of analysis and language specific to poetry.
*Advanced Placement and AP are registered trademarks of the college Entrance Examination Board. The College
Board was not involved in the production of this material.
Materials and Resources
 “Sonnet 18” by William Shakespeare
 copies of Student Activity
 handout: “Graphing the Sonnet”
The following additional assessments are located on the LTF website
 LTF Posttest: 2006 Grade 9 Style Analysis on “The Possession” and “Slipping”
 LTF Posttest: 2006 Grade 10 Style Analysis on “Wing Road” and “Ex-Basketball Player”
Teaching Suggestions
Students will work through the activities to help them analyze diction, imagery, figures of
speech, sound devices, and structure in “Sonnet 18.” Teachers will find a variety of strategies
embedded in the lesson, ranging from a graphic organizer, to paraphrasing, to frame statements
for an analytical paragraph. Because students often find poetry intimidating, teachers should be
prepared to model the exercises in the initial activities, perhaps in a whole-class setting. As they
become more confident with the poem’s form and language, students may complete the activities
independently.
Answers
Many of the answers for this lesson are subjective and will vary. However, answers to objective
questions are provided below. To obtain the maximum benefit of the lesson, ask students to go
beyond the expected responses.
Quatrain 1:
1. summer
2. The speaker compares a beautiful summer day to his lover
4. temperate: calm; self-restrained, neither too hot or cold
5. darling: very dear or beloved
7. Suggested paraphrase: The speaker asks the question whether he should compare his love to a
summer day. He says that she is lovelier and more constant. Summer has rough winds that
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T T EE AA CC HH EE RR
Assessments
The following kinds of formative assessments are embedded in this lesson:
 guided questions
 graphic organizer
 frame statements
 writing assignment
Teacher Overview—Understanding Shakespeare: “Sonnet 18”
shake the beautiful and beloved early blooms of May. The time period of summer is too short.
The speaker must view summer as a pleasant time, but considers it too short.
Quatrain 2:
8. The eye is the sun watching from the sky.
9. The antecedent of the pronoun “his” in line 6 is the sun.
12. Suggested paraphrase of line 7: Fair could refer to the weather to mean clear and sunny; it
could refer to his love as attractive and beautiful as well as just and honest.
14. Suggested paraphrase: At times the sun is too hot or the weather gets cloudy. Everything
beautiful, a person or a day, will at some point lose its beauty and change for the worst
whether the change is caused by misfortune, fate, or unbalanced events.
Couplet
21. Suggested paraphrase: As long as the human race exists, this poem will live on and make you
immortal; you will live on each time a person reads this poem.
24: Suggested answer for frame statement:
In Sonnet 18, William Shakespeare
(title)
(author’s name)
the eternal nature of love and how it
(key aspect of the theme)
illustrates
(reveals, explores, illustrates, etc. marker verbs)
can be preserved through a work of art.
(What does the poem show us on a universal level?)
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T T EE AA CC HH EE RR
Quatrain 3
15. The word “but” signals a shift in the poem. The focus now shifts from “the summer day” to
his love.
17. Death is described as bragging, like a person.
18. The shade is the shadow of death. The Psalmist refers to walking “through the valley of the
shadow of death.”
19. Lines might refer to age lines in the face. It could also refer to lines of poetry. The poetry
lines are the most relevant because the speaker is declaring his love in the sonnet.
20. Suggested paraphrase: But your youth will not fade away, nor will you lose the beauty that
you possess. Death will not claim you for his own. You and the memory of you will never die
because in my lasting poetry you will live forever.
English
Understanding Shakespeare: “Sonnet 18”
Foundation Lesson—High School
Prereading Activity
1. Imagine the perfect summer day. It is early summer with just the perfect mix of comfortable
temperature and weather. List the details about that perfect day on the chart that follows. Fill
in the chart with images that appeal to the different senses.
Sight
Touch
Taste
Smell
Hearing
2. Write a general statement about the overall feeling created by this perfect day.
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
3. Now think of a person you care about. How are this perfect summer day and this person alike?
How are they different?
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
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Student Activity—Understanding Shakespeare: “Sonnet 18”
Sonnet 18 Analysis
Read the poem aloud. Work through the questions and activities that follow.
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,
5
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;
10
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.
Quatrain 1
line 1 Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
2 Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
3 Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
4 And summer’s lease hath all too short a date;
1. What season of the year is dealt with in this sonnet?
2. The quatrain contains an analogy that compares
to
3. Based on images from your prereading chart, explain why this is an effective comparison.
4. What is the denotation of temperate in line 2? How is this word appropriate to describe both a
day in summer and a person?
5. What is the denotation of darling (line 3) in this context?
6. Explain the metaphor in line 4, “summer’s lease.”
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.
Student Activity—Understanding Shakespeare: “Sonnet 18”
7. Paraphrase the first quatrain.
Quatrain 2
line 5 Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
6 And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
7 And every fair from fair sometime declines,
8 By chance or nature’s changing course untrimmed.
8. In line 5, what is “the eye of heaven”?
9. What is the antecedent of the pronoun his in line 6?
10. How could “the eye of heaven” be dimmed?
11. How is the sun further personified in line 6?
12. Explain two possible meanings of the word fair in line 7.
13. For each meaning you identified, explain how something that is fair might “decline.”
14. Paraphrase the second quatrain.
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Student Activity—Understanding Shakespeare: “Sonnet 18”
Quatrain 3
line 9 But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
10 Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;
11 Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
12 When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:
15. What word signals a shift in the poem?
What word in line 1 is directly related to the word thy in line 9?
16. The speaker states that “thy eternal summer shall not fade.” Explain this metaphor.
17. How is Death personified in line 11?
18. Explain the Biblical allusion in line 11.
19. What are possible meanings for the word lines in line 12? Which meaning is most relevant?
Explain.
20. Paraphrase the 3rd quatrain.
Final Couplet
line 13 So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
14 So long lives this and this gives life to thee.
21. Paraphrase the final couplet.
22. What does the final couplet reveal about the power of a literary work?
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Student Activity—Understanding Shakespeare: “Sonnet 18”
The theme of a work, in this case a poem, is its implied view of life and human nature. It is the
generalization about life at large that the piece leads the reader to see.
23. Fill in the following frame statement for theme.
In
,
(title)
(author)
(reveals, explores, illustrates, shows, etc. marker verbs)
(key aspect of the theme)
and how it
.
(What does it show us on a universal level?)
Graphing a Sonnet
Use the sonnet graph on the next page to chart the form of Sonnet 18.
Writing Activities
Review the following definitions:
Rhythm is the varying speed, intensity, elevation, pitch, loudness, and expressiveness of speech.
Meter is the measured, patterned arrangement of syllables, according to stress and length in a
poem. For example, the most common meter in English verse is the iamb, an unstressed
syllable followed by a stressed syllable. An iamb is a two-syllable foot.
A sonnet is a poem of 14 lines following one of several set rhyme schemes. The two basic
classical sonnet types are the Italian (Petrarchan) and the English (Shakespearean). The
Italian (Petrarchan) form is marked by its division into the octave and the sestet. The
rhyme scheme is abbaabba cdecde (or cdcdcd or some other variation of two or three
rhymes). The English (Shakespearean) sonnet is divided into 3 quatrains and a rhymed
couplet. The rhyme scheme is abab cdcd efef gg. The meter is commonly iambic
pentameter (5 iambs, which is ten syllables, per line).
Writing an Analytical Paragraph: Write a paragraph in which you explain how Shakespeare’s use
of imagery suggests his attitude about the enduring power of poetry.
Writing a Sonnet: The theme of a sonnet is usually related to an elevated, abstract idea such as
love, devotion, patriotism, honor, fidelity, etc. Choose such an idea and write an original sonnet,
following one of the patterns identified above (Italian or English). Use the second graph to help
organize the meter and rhyme.
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Student Activity—Understanding Shakespeare: “Sonnet 18”
Graphing the Sonnet
Write one syllable in each of the boxes to show the iambic pentameter of each line .In the last
box, place the rhyme scheme letter for each of the lines.
Line #
∕
ˇ
ˇ
∕
ˇ
ˇ
∕
∕
ˇ
∕
Rhyme
Letter
1
Shall
I
com-
pare
thee
to
a
sum-
mer’s
day?
a
2
Thou
art
more
love-
ly
and
more
tem-
per-
ate:
b
3
Rough
winds
a
4
b
5
c
6
d
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
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Student Activity—Understanding Shakespeare: “Sonnet 18”
Graphing the Sonnet
Write one syllable in each of the boxes to show the iambic pentameter of each line .In the last
box, place the rhyme scheme letter for each of the lines.
Line #
ˇ
∕
ˇ
∕
ˇ
∕
ˇ
∕
ˇ
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
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∕
Rhyme
Letter