An Introduction to Sonnets Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

Sonnets at a Glance Originated in Italy and revived during the Elizabethan period in England 14 line lyric poem Written in iambic pentameter- ten syllable line with accents falling on second syllable Traditionally associated with love and romance Most influential and important verse forms in English literature

The history of the sonnet form Became popular during the Italian renaissance when an Italian poet called Petrarch published a sequence of love sonnets addressed to an idealised woman called Laura It spread through Europe where poets wishing to write about love and romance popularised the form Shakespeare adapted the traditional Petrarchan sonnet to create his own version

William Shakespeare Born 1564 and died 1616 English poet and playwright born in Stratford Works include 38 plays,154 sonnets, two narrative poems and several other poems Widely regarded as world’s greatest dramatist From your own knowledge of Shakespeare, why do you think this might be?

About Shakespeare’s Sonnets Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets in total The sonnets are a series of poems written in a particular form Shakespeare created his own form of sonnet consisting of 14 lines, written in iambic pentameter The sonnets were the last of his work to be published Scholars suggest he wrote them for a private readership only The poet Wordsworth believed that through his sonnets, he ‘unlocked his heart’

The mysteries of the sonnets The first 126 seemed to be addressed to an un-named nobleman whom the speaker loves very much The rest are mostly addressed to a mysterious woman whom the speaker loves, hates and lusts for simultaneously! The two addresses are often referred to as ‘young man’ and the ‘dark lady’ You can read the poems as a sequenced dialogue between the speaker and these two characters

What’s in a Shakespearean sonnet? Dramatic elements An overall sense of story Highly personal themes Can be read individually or as part of a group Feel of autobiographical poems but impossible to know this for sure Address themes and ideas such as love, lust, hate, beauty and the passing of time; all distinctly human emotions

What is a Shakespearian sonnet? Divided 14 lines into four parts. The first three parts are four lines long and known as quatrains, rhymed ABAB/ alternate rhyme The last part is a rhyming couplet/ AA Contain a mixture of enjambment and end- stopping

Example Let’s have a look at one Shakespeare’s most famous sonnets, Sonnet 18, which you may recognise

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 oft' 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 fade Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest; Nor shall Death brag thou wanderest 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. Quatrain Couplet ABABCDCDEFEFGGABABCDCDEFEFGG Rhyme scheme Sonnet 18

Task Each group has a typically Shakespearian theme and a first line to start them off. You must try to write your own Shakespearian sonnet, sticking to the pattern as closely as possible