Exploring the Shakespearean Sonnet

Shakespearean Sonnets The prologue is an English, or Shakespearean, sonnet. Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets, using the following guidelines: Shakespearean sonnet form 14 lines of poetry Three quatrains A quatrain is four lines of poetry. One Couplet A couplet is two consecutive, rhyming lines of poetry. The couplet is a conclusion, summary, or a new take on the preceding images/ideas.

Rhyme Scheme Break Down Analysis of Rhyme Scheme Rhyme Scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF GG Every other line rhymes. Each quatrain starts a new set of rhymes. Quatrain One ABAB Quatrain Two CDCD Quatrain Three EFEF Couplet GG

Rhythm Rhythm Iambic Pentameter An iamb is a type of metric foot consisting of two syllables, an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable (da DUM). Represented: U / Penta = 5 Iambic Pentatmenter: A ten-syllable line consisting of five iambs.  Its stress pattern (five pairs of unstressed/stressed syllables) is conventionally represented U /U / U /U / U /

The Shakespearean Sonnet Quatrain one Establishes the theme or dilemma Quatrain two Complicates the theme or dilemma Quatrain three Contains the volta, or turning point Couplet Summarizes and concludes the problem presented in the first three quatrains Often used to develop a sequence of metaphors or ideas One in each quatrain The couplet offers either a summary or a new take on the preceding images or ideas

Sonnet 147 Analysis Love is compared to a disease. First quatrain My love is as a fever, longing still For that which longer nurseth the disease, Feeding on that which doth preserve the ill, The uncertain sickly appetite to please. My reason, the physician to my love, Angry that his prescriptions are not kept, Hath left me, and I desp’rate now approve Desire is death, which physic did except. Past cure am I, now reason is past care, And frantic mad with evermore unrest, My thoughts and my discourse as madmen’s are, At random from the truth vainly expressed;    For I have sworn thee fair and thought thee bright,    Who art as black as hell, as dark as night. Love is compared to a disease. First quatrain Characterizes the disease Second quatrain Describes the relationship of his love -disease to its “physician,” his reason Third quatrain Describes the consequences of his abandonment of reason, Couplet Explains the source of his man, diseased love – his lover’s betrayal of his faith

Read & Analyze 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-fixed mark, That looks on tempests, and is never shaken; It is the star to every wandering 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.

Create your own! Write a sonnet of your own using the guidelines of a Shakespearean sonnet Write in iambic pentameter Correct rhyme scheme Follow the appropriate format for each quatrain Be creative! Rubric on teacher page – 40 points