Shakespeare and his sonnets

william shakespeare Born 1564 and died in 1616 Born in Stratford-upon-Avon Considered the greatest English writer of all time His plays and sonnets have translated into all languages, musicals and ballets

information you might not hear Shakespeare was a teen father: he married a pregnant, 26 year old Anne Hathaway when he was 18 years old Was the father of twins Could be considered a “deadbeat dad,” as he left his wife and children for a London stage career. Some of his writings may have been plagiarized; he was accused of stealing ideas for plays from the writer Christopher Marlowe

Playwright or poet? Shakespeare is best known for his many stage plays. Some of these titles include: Romeo and Juliet Hamlet King Lear A Midsummer Night’s Dream The Taming of the Shrew Macbeth Much Ado About Nothing Julius Caesar However, Shakespeare is also famous for writing SONNETS!

Sonnets Sonnet: a lyric poem of 14 lines. There are two common species of sonnet, distinguished by their rhyme scheme Italian Shakespearean The Shakespearean sonnet consists of three quatrains and a couplet. The rhyme scheme for a Shakesperean sonnet is typically abab cdcd efef gg

Quatrain Quatrain Quatrain Couplet Quatrain and couplet Quatrain: a four-lined stanza in a poem. Couplet: a two-line portion of a poem that usually rhymes Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the buds of May, And summer’s lease hath all to short a date: Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimm’d; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d; But thy eternal summer shall not fade Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest; Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou growest: So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this and this gives life to thee. Quatrain Quatrain Quatrain Couplet

Iambic pentameter Shakespearean sonnets are written in iambic pentameter. Iambic pentameter is a particular rhythm used in lines of poetry. It is measured in small groups of syllables called “feet.” “Iambic” signifies the type of foot that is used: unstressed syllables followed by stressed syllables. “Pentameter” indicates that a line has five of these “feet” or combinations of stressed and unstressed syllables.

Shakespearean turn Most Shakespearean sonnets include a feature called a turn. This turn is the moment in the poem where the theme or tone (writer’s attitude) changes in a surprising way.

Sonnet 18 Read and annotate the sonnet for the following: Label the quatrains and couplet Label the rhyme scheme Paraphrase the sonnet line-for-line Note any poetic devices that you see present Label the “turn” in the tone of the poem