Sonnets
• Poetry terms review
• Shakespeare’s sonnets
Metaphor
A figure of speech which compares two
things that are really not alike in most
respects, but which seem alike in one
meaningful way. In a metaphor, the
comparison is made without the use of
such words as “like” or “as.”
Metaphors
Examples:
The snow was a blanket on the field.
The music was medicine for my sick soul.
Similes
A simile is a figure of speech that directly
compares two things that are not really
alike in most respects, but that are alike in
some way that makes the comparison
effective. In a simile, the comparison is
always made by using specific comparing
words such as “like” or “as.”
Similes
Examples:
The snow covered the field like a blanket.
Opening the doors to my favorite stores
was like pulling the ribbon off an
unexpected present.
Similes
The heavily tattooed man is like a walking
storybook.
Lake Minnetonka is like a woman’s heart: deep,
murky, and mysterious.
During the last minute of passing period,
Wayzata High School is like a beehive, with
students buzzing frantically around, trying to get
to the right cell of the honeycomb on time.
Shakespearean Sonnets: The
basics
• Review
• Iambic Pentameter and the English Sonnet Style
• Shakespeare’s sonnets (154) are written predominantly in
•
•
iambic pentameter, a rhyme scheme in which each sonnet
line consists of ten syllables.
The syllables are divided into five pairs called iambs or iambic
feet. An iamb is a metrical unit made up of one unstressed
syllable followed by one stressed syllable. An example of an
iamb would be good BYE. A line of iambic pentameter flows
like this:
baBOOM / baBOOM / baBOOM / baBOOM / baBOOM.
Sonnets
Sonnets were most often used as love poems.
Romeo and Juliet recite one to one another
when they meet at the party. However, sonnets
are used elsewhere in the play, too (such as in
the prologues).
The Shakespearean sonnet consists of three
verses with four lines in each verse, then a
fourth verse with only two lines.
Sonnets
The structure of it might look like this:
Xxxxxxxxxx
Xxxxxxxxxx
Xxxxxxxxxx
Xxxxxxxxxx
Xxxxxxxxxx
Xxxxxxxxxx
Xxxxxxxxxx
Xxxxxxxxxx
Xxxxxxxxxx
Xxxxxxxxxx
Xxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxx
Xxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxx
Sonnets
The rhyming pattern for the first three verses is:
abab cdcd efef
This means the last word of the first line rhymes with
the last word of the third line. The last word of the
second line rhymes with the last word of the fourth line
in each quatrain.
For the fourth verse (the two-line verse, known as a
couplet) the rhyming pattern is gg. This means the last
word of the first line rhymes with the last word of the
second line.
Sonnets
Let’s look at a sonnet from Romeo and
Juliet that all of you are somewhat familiar
with: The Prologue to Act 1
Sonnets
Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona (where we lay our scene),
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life;
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
Doth with their death bury their parents’ strife.
The fearful passage of their death-marked love,
And the continuance of their parents’ rage,
Which but their children’s end nought could remove,
Is now the two hours’ traffic of our stage.
The which if you with patient ears attend,
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.
Sonnets
• The poem has 14 lines, arranged in three verses
•
•
•
•
•
of four lines, and a fourth verse of two lines.
It follows the rhyming pattern noted earlier.
Lastly, each line contains 10 syllables:
From (1) forth (2) the (3) fatal (4,5) loins (6) of
(7) these (8) two (9) foes (10)
That’s your challenge.
But there’s more.