Intro to Sonnets A study in Rhyme and Meter…brought to you by… William Shakespeare

Sonnet 18 Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? (Sonnet 18) William Shakespeare, 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 dimmed; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimmed; But thy eternal summer shall not fade, Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st, Nor shall death brag thou wand’rest in his shade, When in eternal lines to Time thou grow’st. So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Analyze! O It’s time to look at patterns in Sonnet 18 (you may mark on the paper). O Look at the patterns…graph what you hear when you listen for syllables. Syl/la/bles are the sounds that make up a word…some/ti mes we list/en and don’t no/tice !

So…what makes a sonnet, a sonnet? O It has ________ lines. O It has ________ sounds per line. O It has a ______________________ rhyme scheme. O It also contains a lot of ___________. O What else do you notice about sonnets? How many quatrains? How many couplets? O It has Iambic pentameter (…let’s deal with that later…)

What on earth is a sonnet? O

The Love of My Life 1MyheartsingswhenIhearthesweetsmallbuzzA 2ItfillsgreatLyWithPrideAttheTrillringB 3TheseGlorIOusSoundsExCiteMeBecauseA 4IKnowMyFavORiteMusicwillsingB 5There’sAlWaysTheDangErOfALongdropC 6ThisKeepsMeShudDerIngInExtremefearD 7ButMyIPhoneLoyAlTyWillnotstopC 8AsLongAsMyMajorConTentsarenearD 9ThisLitTleDeViceCanEvEntakenoteE 10EvErYThingIsConTainedInanappF 11OnLyApPleWillReCeiveMybestvoteE 12SinceLearnIngHowToUseItIsasnapF 13MyPreCiousIPhoneBringsTomeasmileG 14MyphonewillbetreasuredforquiteawhileG

1 A 2 B 3 A 4 B 5 C 6 D 7 C 8 D 9 E 10 F 11 E 12 F 13 G 14 G YOUR TURN!

Now, this is a story all about how My life got flipped-turned upside down And I'd like to take a minute Just sit right there I'll tell you how I became the prince of a town called Bel Air In west Philadelphia born and raised On the playground was where I spent most of my days Chilling' out, maxing', relaxing' all cool And all shooting' some b-ball outside of the school When a couple of guys who were up to no good Started making trouble in my neighborhood I got in one little fight and my mom got scared She said 'You're movin' with your auntie and uncle in Bel Air' I begged and pleaded with her day after day But she packed my suit case and sent me on my way She gave me a kiss and then she gave me my ticket. I put my Walkman on and said, 'I might as well kick it'. First class, yo this is bad Drinking orange juice out of a champagne glass. Is this what the people of Bel-Air living like? Hmmmmm this might be alright. But wait I hear they're prissy, bourgeois, all that Is this the type of place that they just send this cool cat? I don't think so I'll see when I get there I hope they're prepared for the prince of Bel-Air Well, the plane landed and when I came out There was a dude who looked like a cop standing there with my name out I ain't trying to get arrested yet I just got here I sprang with the quickness like lightning, disappeared I whistled for a cab and when it came near The license plate said fresh and it had dice in the mirror If anything I could say that this cab was rare But I thought 'Nah, forget it' - 'Yo, home to Bel Air' I pulled up to the house about 7 or 8 And I yelled to the cabbie 'Yo home smell ya later' I looked at my kingdom I was finally there To sit on my throne as the Prince of Bel Air

Now we try! 1 A 2 B 3 A 4 B 5 C 6 D 7 C 8 D 9 E 10 F 11 E 12 F 13 G 14 G Pick a topic. Choose a rhyming word for each line. ( Fill in with syllables and words that make sense. (Remember that a couplet should complete the poem’s thought—it is the final POW to your poem. It is the theme. It is your final statement. It can often have a twist or witty turn of thought.