Tasks: The Shakespearean Sonnet

Comprehension

Work together in pairs or groups. Go through Sonnet 18 and Sonnet 130 line by line, and paraphrase the poems in modern English. Don't worry about rhyme and rhythm - just write down what you believe the poems try to convey.

Go through your findings in class. Is there anything you don't understand? Discuss.

Compare

Go through Sonnet 18 and Sonnet 130 again and compare their structure, rhyme scheme, and rhythm.

Structure:
The Shakespearean Sonnet is divided into four stanzas: three quatrains and a couplet. Go through the sonnets and identify the different stanzas.
Rhyme scheme:
Using the letters a to g, identify the rhyme scheme of the poems. Are they identical?
Rhythm:
There are many different rhythmic patterns in poetry, but Shakespeare is most famous for using iambic pentameter.

To find out what iambic pentameter is and how it is used, watch the following TedEd video: Why Shakespeare loved iambic pentameter.

Now try reading the poems aloud.

Which of the poems is most consistent in its use of iambic pentameter?
Does the rhythm make some lines more difficult to read than others?
Iambic pentameter is often compared to a heart beat. Can you feel the heart beat as you read?
Studying the structure, the rhyme, and the rhythm of a poem may seem irrelevant and unimportant. But these poetic elements can make an important contribution to the overall impact of a poem. Why are these elements important in Shakespeare's work? How do they add life to his poems? Discuss.

Poetic devices

Poetic devices are tools used to create rhythm, enhance meaning, and intensify mood using a variety of writing strategies. The words that Shakespeare chose in his poetry were not random; in one way or another, they all create a mood and they emphasis the key thematic idea of the sonnet.

Choose one of the sonnets and read through it several times looking for various poetic devices. You will find a list of devices with definitions and examples in the expandable box below.

You will find all these devices used in the two poems combined, but you will not find all devices in both poems.

Poetic devices used in Sonnet 18 and Sonnet 130

Alliteration: repetition of the same sound at the beginning of several words in a sequence.

Example: Tongue twisters often use alliteration: Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.

Allusion: A reference or suggestion to a historical or well-known person, place or thing.

Example: In his speech 'I Have a Dream', Martin Luther King Jr. alludes to Abraham Lincoln without using his name: 'Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation.'

Anaphora: The repeated use of word at the start of two or more consecutive lines.

Example: In 'I Have a Dream' both the phrases 'Let freedom ring...' and the 'I have a dream' are repeated several times at the start of the lines.

Assonance: The repetition of similar vowel sounds, usually close together.

Example: 'I might like to take a flight to an island in the sky.'

Enjambment: When a sentence continues into two or more lines in a poem.

Example: John Donne uses enjambment in his poem 'The Good Morrow':
'I wonder, by my troth, what thou and I
Did, till we loved? Were we not weaned till then?'

Imagery: Elements of a poem that invoke any of the five senses (sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch) to create a set of mental images.

Example: This is taken from 'After-Apple Picking' by Robert Frost:
'I feel the ladder sway as the boughs bend.
And I keep hearing from the cellar bin
The rumbling sound
Of load on load of apples coming in.'

Metaphor: Indirect comparison by highlighting a particular quality of two things.

Example: In 'Romeo and Juliet', Romeo compares Juliet to the sun: 'What light through yonder window breaks? It is the East, and Juliet, the sun!'

Personification: When something non-human is given human traits.

Example: 'The waves winked in the sunlight' and 'The wind played hide-and-go-seek among the trees.'

Simile:: The comparison between two things or persons by using the words like or as.

Example: The following statement by Eleanor Roosevelt uses a simile: 'A woman is like a teabag — you never know how strong she is until she gets in hot water.'

If you are looking for further definitions and examples, the following website might be useful: Literary Devices

Analyse

Choose one of the sonnets. Write a literary analysis where you point out some of the poetic devices used in the poem and how these tools emphasis the key thematic idea of the sonnet.

Structure the sonnet

Below you will find a sonnet by William Shakespeare, but the lines are not in order. Read the lines carefully, and use what you have learnt about the structure, rhyme, and rhythm of Shakespearean Sonnets to reassemble the lines in the correct order.