SONNET ASSIGNMENT

• With your partner• 1. Reread the poem• 2. Answer the questions on your assignment

sheet• 3. You will have 20 Minutes to complete this!

When I am here alone in deepest thought,And images of you come cross my mindI think of all the pain and grief I’ve boughtBecause your sneaking heart I could not find.

And though I never really had much hope, I dared to dream our love was like a seedTo grow. But now I’ve had to learn to copeWith this crying heart that will always bleed.

And yet I would not ever trade the time,

When I could gaze upon your face so sweet,And now I praise you in this simple rhymeTo let you know you made my life complete.

Oh, lady of my dreams you are a queenAnd I am left to think what might have been.

WHAT IS A SONNET?

Sonnet Notes

4WHAT IS A SONNET?

• A sonnet is a fourteen-line poem in iambic pentameter.

Iambic what?

Oh dear, this isgoing to be aweird lesson!

A SONNET MUST:

• Be a lyric poem

• Consist of fourteen lines

• Be written in iambic pentameter

•Have a definite rhyme scheme• A sonnet can be about any subject, though they are

often about love or nature.

ENGLISH SONNET

• An English Sonnet is also called a Shakespearean Sonnet.

• It includes three quatrains (groups of four lines) and a couplet (two lines).

• The rhyme scheme is often abab cdcd efef gg.

A LYRIC POEM

•A poem that deals with emotions, feelings, usually written in first person

IAMBIC PENTAMETER CONSISTS OF

•five measures, units, or meters, of• Iambs (two syllables)

•For us, this means it has 10 syllables per line

IAMBIC PENTAMETER•  Iambic Pentameter is the rhythm and meter

in which poets and playwrights wrote in Elizabethan England. It is a meter that Shakespeare uses.

• It is supposed to be the rhythm of the heart beat: • dee DUM, dee DUM, dee DUM, dee DUM, dee

DUM.

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SYLLABLES• What is a syllable?

• Well, there are three syllables (separate sounds) in the word syllable (sy-lla-ble)! Let’s practice

• Life is hard

• Life is sometimes hard

• Somewhere over the rainbow...

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RHYMING PATTERNS• Rhyme: The Shakespearean sonnet has

three quatrains followed by a couplet, the scheme being: abab cdcd efef gg.

When I am here alone in deepest thought,

And images of you come cross my mind

I think of all the pain and grief I’ve bought

Because your sneaking heart I could not find

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• Quatrains are any stanza with 4 lines. Shakespearean sonnets have 3 quatrains and a couplet.

TEACHER SONNET1. Do you love school on each new testing day?

2. Each day is like a miracle to me

3. Fine students work so hard then wish to play

4. It truly is a joyful sight to see

5. Sometimes they get real bored and start to talk

6. And yet I know it’s really not their fault

7. Their legs get tired, then they take a walk

8. One freakish one does a big somersault

9. But one cannot forget that this is true

10. STAR testing is important to our school

11. To beat Foothill is a great honor too

12. So don’t ditch out or you will be a fool

13. So every day come to my class on time

14. And it will prove to be so worth your time!

LET’S ANALYZE ONE OF THE CLASSICS!

• With a partner, read and analyze Shakespeare’s 130th sonnet.

• You will have 20 minutes.

• After 20 minutes, groups who are finished will get a check.

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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'd2, red and white,But no such roses see I in her cheeks;And in some perfumes is there more delightThan in the breath that from my mistress reeks.

I love to hear her speak, yet well I knowThat music has 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 rareAs any she belied3 with false compare.” ― William Shakespeare, 

WRITING YOUR SONNET TIPS

• Get your ideas out first, you can play with word choice later

• Remember to include at least 2 pieces of figurative language

• Try to write in 1st person!

• Ask Ms. Sobotka for help if you need it!

“WHAT THE SONNET IS”

Fourteen small broidered berries on the hemOf Circe’s mantle, each of magic gold;Fourteen of lone Calypso’s tears that rolledInto the sea, for pearls to come of them;Fourteen clear signs of omen in the gemWith which Medea human fate foretold;Fourteen small drops, which Faustus, growing old,Craved of the Fiend, to water Life’s dry stem.It is the pure white diamond Dante broughtTo Beatrice; the sapphire Laura woreWhen Petrarch cut it sparkling out of thought;The ruby Shakespeare hewed from his heart’s core;The dark, deep emerald that Rossetti wroughtFor his own soul, to wear for evermore.~Eugene Lee-Hamilton

WHAT TYPE OF SONNET IS

“WHAT THE SONNET IS”?Lines are in an octave (eight lines) and a sestet (six lines).

Fourteen small broidered berries on the hemOf Circe’s mantle, each of magic gold;Fourteen of lone Calypso’s tears that rolledInto the sea, for pearls to come of them;Fourteen clear signs of omen in the gemWith which Medea human fate foretold;Fourteen small drops, which Faustus, growing old,Craved of the Fiend, to water Life’s dry stem.It is the pure white diamond Dante broughtTo Beatrice; the sapphire Laura woreWhen Petrarch cut it sparkling out of thought;The ruby Shakespeare hewed from his heart’s core;The dark, deep emerald that Rossetti wroughtFor his own soul, to wear for evermore.

WHAT TYPE OF SONNET IS

“WHAT THE SONNET IS”?• Rhyme scheme is abbaabba cdcdcd.

Fourteen small broidered berries on the hemOf Circe’s mantle, each of magic gold;Fourteen of lone Calypso’s tears that rolledInto the sea, for pearls to come of them;Fourteen clear signs of omen in the gemWith which Medea human fate foretold;Fourteen small drops, which Faustus, growing old,Craved of the Fiend, to water Life’s dry stem.It is the pure white diamond Dante broughtTo Beatrice; the sapphire Laura woreWhen Petrarch cut it sparkling out of thought;The ruby Shakespeare hewed from his heart’s core;The dark, deep emerald that Rossetti wroughtFor his own soul, to wear for evermore.

WHAT TYPE OF SONNET IS

“WHAT THE SONNET IS”?• The turn in this sonnet is between the

octave and the sestet, or after eight lines.• The period at the end of line eight is a

clue that this is the turn, especially because it is one of only two periods in the sonnet.• Before the turn, the speaker is telling of

groups of fourteen; after the turn, he tells of who wrote the sonnets.

WHAT TYPE OF SONNET IS

“WHAT THE SONNET IS”?

“What the Sonnet Is” is an Italian/Petrarchan

Sonnet!

IAMBIC PENTAMETER

• A line of Iambic Pentameter is a line with ten beats.

• An “Iamb” is two beats, or one “foot.”

• “Penta” is five (line has five “feet”).

• “Meter” is the rhythm of the poem.

• A “foot” is made of an unstressed syllable and a stressed syllable (in that order).

ITALIAN SONNET

• An Italian Sonnet is also called a Petrarchan Sonnet.• It includes an octave (eight lines) and a

sestet (six lines).• The rhyme scheme must begin with

abbaabba, and can conclude with any variation of c, d, and e (cdecde, cdcdee, etc.).• The turn must occur between the octave

and the sestet.

WHAT TYPE OF SONNET IS “WHAT THE SONNET IS”?

• What are the groupings of the lines (how many lines are in each group)?

• What is the rhyme scheme?

• Where is the turn?

• Based on your answers, what kind of sonnet is it?

Write these questions on your paper and answer them when the sonnet is shown.