Shakespearean Sonnets - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

Shakespearean Sonnets

English 11Slide2

What is a sonnet?

A sonnet is a fourteen-line poem in iambic pentameter. Slide3

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. Slide4

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.Slide5

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). Slide6

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 Slide7

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. Slide8

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. Slide9

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)Slide10

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 Slide11

syllables

“

But soft, what light through yonder window breaks

.”

How

many syllables are there in that quotation?

Underline

the

stressed

words. Slide12

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

:Slide13

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;

Slide14

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

;Slide15

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

.Slide16

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 know

That 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. Slide17

Analyzing sonnet 18

Analyze Sonnet 130 by answering questions #1-9

Questions are on the last page of the handout