SHAKESPEAREAN SONNETS

English 11

WHAT IS A SONNET?

A sonnet is a fourteen-line poem in iambic

pentameter.

ABOUT SONNETS

In Shakespeare’s time, the popular topic for

sonnets was LOVE--or a theme related to love

Sonnets are often written as part of a series, with

each sonnet as a sequel to the previous one.

However, many sonnets could stand alone as

separate poems.

PETRARCHAN SONNET

Divided into two sections:• an octave (ABBA ABBA), • and a sestet (usually CDE CDE, CDC CDC, or CDC

DCD).

Typically the octave will describe a problem, and

the sestet will propose a resolution.

SHAKESPEAREAN SONNET

Divided into 3 quatrains and 1 couplet:• ABAB CDCD EFEF GG

Like the Italian Sonnet, typically the English

sonnet will present a problem in the quatrains, and

suggest a resolution in the couplet.

The meter of Shakespeare's sonnets is iambic

pentameter (except in Sonnet 145).

POETIC FORM

Sonnets have a certain structure as well as a

rhyming pattern.

The Shakespearean sonnet has three quatrains

followed by a couplet, the scheme being: abab cdcd

efef gg.

Quatrains are four line stanzas of any kind

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.

HEARTBEAT

Quite simply, iambic pentameter 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 heartbeat.

PENTAMETER

An ‘iamb’ is ‘dee Dum’ – the heart beat.

‘Penta’ is from the Greek for five.

Meter is the pattern

So, there are five iambs per line (iambic penta

meter)

IAMBIC PENTAMETER

Iambic Pentameter 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

SYLLABLES

“But soft, what light through yonder window

breaks.” 

How many syllables are there in that quotation?

Underline the stressed words.

SONNET 18 – WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

Quatrain 1 (four-line stanza) 

A  Shall I compare thee to a summer’s Day?

B   Thou art more lovely and more temper ATE :

A   Rough winds do shake the darling buds of MAY,

B   And summer's lease hath all too short a DATE :

SONNET 18

Quatrain 2 (four-line stanza)   

C   Sometime too hot the eye of heaven SHINES,

D   And often is his gold complexion DIMM'D;

C  And every fair from fair sometime de CLINES,

D   By chance or nature's changing course un

TRIMM'D;

SONNET 18

Quatrain 3 (four-line stanza)

E    But thy eternal summer shall not FADE ,

F    Nor lose possession of that fair thou OWEST ,

E    Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his

SHADE ,

F    When in eternal lines to time thou GROWEST ;

SONNET 18

Couplet (two rhyming lines) 

G    So long as men can breathe ,or eyes can SEE;

G    So long lives this, and this gives life to THEE .

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 damask'd, 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 knowThat 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.

ANALYZING SONNET 18

Analyze Sonnet 130 by answering questions #1-9

Questions are on the last page of the handout