Introduction to Sonnets (Shakespearean)

Lyric Poetry Short poem with a single speaker Expresses personal thoughts and feelings Does NOT tell the entire story Characteristics: Sense of rhythm and melody Imaginative language Exploration of a single thought or feeling Ex. Ode, Haiku, Cinquain, Sonnet

Sonnets A sonnet is a fourteen-line poem consisting of iambic pentameter lines. The two major sonnet forms are: Italian (Petrarchan) English (Shakespearean).

English/Shakespearean Sonnet The English sonnet is a fourteen-line poem consisting of: three quatrains and a couplet The poem’s thoughts are broken into separate motifs (distinctive feature or dominant ideas) for each quatrain. The couplet at the end sums up the poem’s theme/message. (three sets of four lines and one set of two lines).

abab cdcd efef gg Ex: The rhyme scheme is: When forty winters shall besiege thy brow, A And dig deep trenches in thy beauty's field, B Thy youth's proud livery so gazed on now, A Will be a tattered weed of small worth held: B Then being asked, where all thy beauty lies, C Where all the treasure of thy lusty days; D To say within thine own deep sunken eyes, C Were an all-eating shame, and thriftless praise. D How much more praise deserved thy beauty's use, E If thou couldst answer 'This fair child of mine F Shall sum my count, and make my old excuse‘ E Proving his beauty by succession thine. F This were to be new made when thou art old, G And see thy blood warm when thou feel'st it cold. G

Sonnet 130 To Do: Mark off the Stanzas (three quatrains, one couplet) Mark the iambic pentameter of one of the stanzas Circle the words that show the rhyme scheme Find three examples of imagery Find a metaphor Note the “motif” of each quatrain Where is the main message/theme of the sonnet? How do you know? What is the emotion of this sonnet? Sonnet 130 My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun; Coral is far more red than her lips’ red; If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun; If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. I have seen roses damasked, red and white, But no such roses see I in her cheeks; And in some perfumes is there more delight Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks. I love to hear her speak, yet well I know That music hath a far more pleasing sound; I grant I never saw a goddess go; My mistress when she walks treads on the ground. And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare As any she belied with false compare.

Sonnet 18 Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? What is the rhyme scheme of this poem? Summarize the theme of the poem. How many syllables are in each line? Why might the last two lines be indented? Draw lines between the lines to show where you would create stanzas if you were the poet. Copy down an excellent example of alliteration. What metaphor is in this poem? What two things are being compared? Where is an example of personification? What is “this” in the last line? How long will it last? Sonnet 18 Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate. Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer’s lease hath all too short a date. Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimmed; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimmed; But thy eternal summer shall not fade, Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st, Nor shall death brag thou wand’rest in his shade, When in eternal lines to Time thou grow’st. So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

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.