1. Shakespearean Sonnets 1 Unit III: Paradoxes of Life and Literature LEQ: What is a sonnet?

2. 2 William Shakespeare

3. 3 What is a sonnet? A sonnet is a fourteen-line poem written in iambic pentameter. Iambic what? Oh dear, this is going to be a weird lesson!

4. 4 Iambic Pentameter Iambic Pentameter is the rhythm and metre in which poets and playwrights wrote in Elizabethan England. It is a metre that Shakespeare uses.

5. 5 Heartbeat. Quite simply, it sounds like this: dee DUM, dee DUM, dee DUM, dee DUM, dee DUM. It consists of a line of five iambic feet, ten syllables with five unstressed and five stressed syllables. It is the first and last sound we ever hear, it is the rhythm of the human heart beat.

6. 6 Pentameter? Well an ‘iamb’ is ‘dee Dum’ – it is the heart beat. Penta is from the Greek for five. Meter is really the pattern So, there are five iambs per line! (Iambic penta meter )

7. 7 It is percussive and attractive to the ear and has an effect on the listener's central nervous system. An Example of Pentameter from Shakespeare: but SOFT what LIGHT through YONder WINdow BREAKS

8. 8 Syllables What is a syllable? Well, there are three syllables (separate sounds) in the word syllable! “But soft, what light through yonder window breaks.” How many syllables are there in that quotation?

9. 9 “But soft, what light through yonder window breaks.” Write this down and underline the unstressed and stressed words. This rhythm is iambic pentameter!

10. 10 Back to sonnets. Well, it is a poetic form. However, it has a very specific structure, rhythm and rhyme scheme.

11. 11 Shakespearean sonnet A.K.A. the English Sonnet The Shakespearean sonnet has three quatrains followed by a couplet. More head scratching?

12. 12 The Rhyme Scheme three quatrains followed by a couplet abab cdcd efef gg Send A Lean B Mend A Bean B Grow C Fluff D Mow C Huff D Red E Tell F Fed E Well F Cry G Try G

13. 13 Quatrain? Quatrains are four line stanzas of any kind I have divided the following sonnet into the three quatrains.

14. 14 Quatrain? Quatrains are four line stanzas of any kind I have divided the following sonnet into the three quatrains. Take 2 minutes to mark the rhyme scheme of the sonnet.

15. 15 Quatrain? Quatrains are four line stanzas of any kind I have divided the following sonnet into the three quatrains. Take 2 minutes to mark the rhyme scheme of the sonnet. Now, mark the first two lines for syllables and stress/unstressed.

16. 16 Sonnet 18 Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? (a) Thou art more lovely and more temperate: (b) Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, (a) And summer's lease hath all too short a date: (b) Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, (c) And often is his gold complexion dimm'd; (d) And every fair from fair sometime declines, (c) By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd; (d) But thy eternal summer shall not fade (e) Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest; (f) Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade, (e) When in eternal lines to time thou growest: (f) So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, (g) So long lives this and this gives life to thee. (g)

17. 17 What does it mean? Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? (a) Thou art more lovely and more temperate: (b) Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, (a) And summer's lease hath all too short a date: (b) Shall I compare you to a summer’s day? You are more lovely and more moderate: Harsh winds disturb the delicate buds of May, and summer doesn’t last long enough. -The first stanza compares a person to a summer’s day, but the person is better than summer.

18. What does it mean? Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, (c) And often is his gold complexion dimm'd; (d) And every fair from fair sometime declines, (c) By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd; (d) Sometimes the sun is too hot, and its golden face is often dimmed by clouds. All beautiful things eventually become less beautiful, either by the experiences of life or by the passing of time. - Sometimes it’s too hot, there are clouds, and everything just isn't pretty anymore. 18

19. What does it mean? But thy eternal summer shall not fade (e) Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest; (f) Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade, (e) When in eternal lines to time thou growest: (f) But your eternal beauty won’t fade, nor lose any of its quality. And you will never die, as you will live on in my enduring poetry. - BUT you will always be beautiful, and your beauty will never fade because it will live on in the poetry. 19

20. The BIG BUT! The BIG BUT typically comes after the first 8 lines and within the last 6 lines. It signifies the turn, volta, change in thought, change in direction, or shift in poem and emotion. But, yet, wait for a moment, even so. 20

21. What does it mean? So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, (g) So long lives this and this gives life to thee. (g) As long as there are people still alive to read poems this sonnet will live, and you will live in it. The beauty will live on through the poem for as long as it can be read. 21