Who– made famous by William Shakespeare What– Poetry in special metered form When—400 years ago Where—London publishing Why– may have been meant to be private;

all about Shakespeare’s deepest, romantic feelings, that are very revealing; may be autobiographical. (Sonnet 20- reveals a new side about him)

Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets, likely composed over an extended period from 1592 to 1598, the year in which Francis Meres referred to Shakespeare's "sugred sonnets”

In 1609 Thomas Thorpe published Shakespeare's sonnets, no doubt without the author's permission, in quarto format, along with Shakespeare's long poem, The Passionate Pilgrim. The sonnets were dedicated to a W. H., whose identity remains a mystery, although William Herbert, the Earl of Pembroke, is frequently suggested because Shakespeare's First Folio (1623) was also dedicated to him.

Although love is the overarching theme of the sonnets, there are three specific underlying themes: (1) the brevity of life, (2) the transience of beauty, and (3) the trappings of desire.

Mabillard, Amanda. How to Analyze a Shakespearean Sonnet. Shakespeare Online. 20 Nov. 2009. (date when you accessed the information) < http://www.shakespeare-online.com/sonnets/sonnetanalyze.html >.

Shakespeare’s sonnets are written predominantly in a meter called iambic pentameter, a rhyme scheme in which each sonnet line consists of ten syllables.

The syllables are divided into five pairs called iambs or iambic feet. An iamb is a metrical unit made up of one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable.

An example of an iamb would be good BYE. A line of iambic pentameter flows like this:

baBOOM / baBOOM / baBOOM / baBOOM / baBOOM.

This is 10 syllables, with a unstressed and then stressed pattern(grouped into five units)

When I / do COUNT / the CLOCK / that TELLS / the TIME (Sonnet 12)

Shall I / com PARE/ thee TO / a SUM / mer’s DAY? Thou ART / more LOVE / ly AND / more TEM / per ATE (Sonnet 18)

Plays: Shakespeare’s plays are written primarily in iambic pentameter, but the lines are unrhymed and not grouped into stanzas. Unrhymed iambic pentameter is called blank verse.

Sonnet Structure There are fourteen lines in a Shakespearean

sonnet. The first twelve lines are divided into three

quatrains with four lines each.

◦In the three quatrains the poet establishes a theme or problem and then (first 12 lines)

◦resolves it in the final two lines, called the couplet.

The rhyme scheme of the quatrains is-

abab cdcd efefThe couplet has the rhyme scheme –

gg

This sonnet structure is commonly called the English sonnet or the Shakespearean sonnet, to distinguish it from the Italian Petrarchan sonnet form which has two parts: a rhyming octave (abbaabba) and a rhyming sestet (cdcdcd). The Petrarchan sonnet style was extremely popular with Elizabethan sonneteers, much to Shakespeare's disdain (he mocks the conventional and excessive Petrarchan style in Sonnet 130).

Only three of Shakespeare's 154 sonnets do not conform to this structure: Sonnet 99, which has 15 lines; Sonnet 126, which has 12 lines; and Sonnet 145, which is written in iambic tetrameter.

Mabillard, Amanda. Shakespearean Sonnet Basics: Iambic Pentameter and the English Sonnet Style. Shakespeare Online. 20 Aug. 2000. (date when you accessed the information) < http://www.shakespeare-online.com/sonnets/sonnetstyle.html >.

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 dimm'd; And every fair from fair sometime declines,By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;But thy eternal summer shall not fadeNor lose possession of that fair thou owest;Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,When in eternal lines to time thou growest: So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,So long lives this and this gives life to thee.

Pick a sonnet Label unstressed and stressed syllables Label the rhyme pattern or rhyme scheme Create a paraphrase of each line Create an analysis- explain all and any figurative

language and why he was saying what he said. EX: ◦ Theme◦ Symbolism◦ Alliteration◦ Allusions◦ Irony

Pick 1 Sonnet (4 choices) Get out your own paper, fold it in half

Write the sonnet to one side of your paper skipping lines

Write down the meaning of each line on the opposite side of the paper- use the dictionary if you need

Label the ◦ -iambic pentameter◦ -unstressed and stressed syllables◦ -end rhyme scheme (abab…)

Explain your definition of love and hate. What situations call for such extreme

emotion, and which one are you more apt to ‘do’?

Do you feel one can fall in love and out of love?

Can you therefore fall in and out of hate? Do you have any personal connections to

these two words What are your feelings on how do we use

these words?