1. Shakespearean Sonnets!

2. A sonnet is… A lyric poem Qualities:  14 lines  Written in iambic pentameter  Contains three quatrains  Ends in a couplet  Rhyme scheme: abab cdcd efef gg

3. Quatrain and Couplets Quatrains are four-line units. In Shakespearean sonnets, they contain similar rhyme schemes. Couplets are sets of two lines. In Shakespearean sonnets, they rhyme and have the same meter. Take all my loves, my love, yea take them all; What hast thou then more than thou hadst before?Quatrain No love, my love, that thou mayst true love call; All mine was thine, before thou hadst this more. Then, if for my love, thou my love receivest, I cannot blame thee, for my love thou usest;Quatrain But yet be blam'd, if thou thy self deceivest By wilful taste of what thyself refusest. I do forgive thy robbery, gentle thief, Although thou steal thee all my poverty:Quatrain And yet, love knows it is a greater grief To bear love's wrong, than hate's known injury. Lascivious grace, in whom all ill well shows,Couplet Kill me with spites yet we must not be foes.

4. Meter Meter is a regular pattern of unstressed and stressed syllables. Meter emphasizes the musical quality of the language. A unit of meter is called a foot. It contains one unstressed syllable followed by one or two stressed syllables. An iamb is one unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable.

5. Iambic Pentameter Iambic pentameter contains five sets of unstressed and stressed syllables per line. Shakespeare’s sonnets and most of Shakespeare’s plays are written primarily in iambic pentameter.