Quick-write
What comes to mind when you
think about William
Shakespeare?
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William Shakespeare
1564-1616
Born in Stratford
The 3rd of 8 kids
Married at age 18
(Anne Hathaway,
his wife, was 26)
Worked as an actor
Published 37 plays:
*Comedies
*Tragedies
*Histories
*156 Sonnets (poems)
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Shakespeare’s Sonnets
English 7
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Today we will:
1. Become familiar with Shakespeare’s language.
2. Identify the characteristics of Shakespeare’s
sonnets.
3. Analyze a Shakespearean sonnet.
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The Globe Theatre 1599
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The New Globe Theatre 1999
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What is a sonnet?
Iambic what?
• A sonnet is a fourteen-line
poem in iambic
pentameter often about
LOVE.
Oh dear, this is
going to be a
weird lesson!
• It usually argues a point
or solves a problem.
Ex: You must love me
because…
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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.
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Heartbeat.
• Quite simply, it sounds
like this: dee DUM, dee
DUM, dee DUM, dee
DUM, dee DUM.
• It is the rhythm of the
human heart beat.
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Pentameter?
• An ‘iamb’ is ‘dee Dum’ – it is the heart beat.
• Penta is from the Greek for five.
• Meter is really the pattern
•
•
So, there are five iambs per line!
(Iambic penta meter )
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• It 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 WINdow
BREAKS
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Syllables
• What is a syllable?
• Well, there are three syllables (separate sounds) in
the word syllable!
• I am a pirate with a wooden leg.
• How many syllables are there?
• Go to the store to buy a loaf of bread.
• How many syllables are there?
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Syllables
10 syllables5 stressed and 5 unstressed
dee DUM dee DUM
dee
DUM
dee
DUM
dee
DUM
I am a pirate with a wooden leg.
dee DUM dee
DUM
dee DUM dee DUM dee
DUM
Go to the store to buy a loaf of bread.
What is this called again?
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“But soft, what light through yonder window
breaks.”
--Romeo and Juliet II, ii.
• At the bottom of your hand-out, identify the
stressed and unstressed syllables. (Remember, the
first syllable in iambic pentameter is ALWAYS
unstressed!)
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dee
DUM
dee
DUM
dee
DUM dee
DUM dee
DUM
“But soft, what light through yonder window breaks.
--Romeo and Juliet II, ii.
This rhythm is iambic pentameter!
Well done!
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Back to sonnets.
• Well, it is a poetic form.
• But it has a certain structure as well as a rhyming
pattern.
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Rhyming patterns
• The Shakespearean sonnet has three quatrains
followed by a couplet, the scheme being: abab
cdcd efef gg.
•
More head scratching?
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Quatrain?
• Quatrains are four line stanzas of any kind.
• Couplets are two line stanzas of any kind.
• I have divided the following sonnet into the three
quatrains.
Can you label the quatrains?
(The couplet has been labelled for you.)
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Sonnet 18
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? (A)
Thou art more lovely and more temperate. (B)
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, (A)
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date. (B)
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, (C)
And often is his gold complexion dimmed, (D)
And every fair from fair sometime declines, (C)
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimmed; (D)
But thy eternal summer shall not fade (E)
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st (F)
Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade (E)
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st (F)
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, (G)
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. (G)
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Let’s Review…
• 1. What is a sonnet?
• 2. How many lines does it have?
• 3. What is the rhyming pattern of a
Shakespearean sonnet?
• 4. What is the special meter called that was used
by Shakespeare?
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But What Does All This Mean?
Let’s look at the last two lines:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, (G)
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. (G)
The last two lines are usually the solution to the
problem.
As long as people are alive to read this poem,
This poem will keep you alive and beautiful.
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But What Does All This Mean?
With your partner, translate a single
line of iambic pentameter into
contemporary language.
*Use the definitions under the poem to help
you.
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Translation
Should I compare you to a summer’s day?
You are lovelier than summer and you don’t change.
Sometimes summer can be stormy and kill May flowers,
And summer doesn’t last very long.
Sometimes summer is too hot,
Questions for Discussion
And every summer must end,
And everything beautiful fades,
• What reasons does the speaker
Because this is the course of nature.
give for not comparing his lover to
But your youth will not fade
a summer’s day? (Quatrains 1&2)
And you will not lose your beauty.
You will always be beautiful
• What is special about the lover’s
Even after you die.
beauty? (Quatrain 3)
As long as people are alive to read this poem,
This poem will keep you alive and beautiful.
• In the end, what will keep the
lover alive and beautiful?
(Couplet)
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Huzzah!
Thou hast
done it!
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Reflection
What are two (2) things you learned about
sonnets today?
What is one (1) question you still have?
THANK YOU FOR LEARNING WITH US TODAY!
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