Shakespearean Sonnets

Also known as the English sonnet A sonnet is a form of lyric poetry Most common topic of sonnets is love Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets

Shakespearean Sonnets Composed of 14 lines Contains three four-line stanzas known as quatrains and a two-line unit called a couplet

Shakespearean Sonnets Alternating rhyme scheme with a rhyming couplet at the end ababcdcdefefgg Meter is iambic pentameter – ten stressed and unstressed syllables in a line

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 fixèd 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. Quatrain 1 Quatrain 2 Quatrain 3 Couplet a b a b c d c d e f e f g g

Volta Italian for turn In sonnets, the volta is a unexpected sharp thematic turn or shift in the poem

Volta In Shakespeare’s sonnets, the volta can usually be found in the couplet It may: – Summarize the theme or – Introduce a fresh new look at the theme