Shakespeare Sonnets

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare was born in 1564, in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. Parts of his life remain a mystery and all that can be deduced is that over the course of 20 years, Shakespeare wrote plays that capture the complete range of human emotion and conflict. By 1592, there is evidence William Shakespeare earned a living as an actor and a playwright in London and possibly had several plays produced.

William Shakespeare By the early 1590s, documents show William Shakespeare was a managing partner in the Lord Chamberlain's Men, an acting company in London. After the crowning of King James I, in 1603, the company changed its name to the King's Men. From all accounts, the King's Men company was very popular, and records show that Shakespeare had works published and sold as popular literature. The theater culture in 16th century England was not highly admired by people of high rank. However, many of the nobility were good patrons of the performing arts and friends of the actors. William Shakespeare's sonnets are stories about a handsome boy, or rival poet, and the mysterious and aloof "dark" lady they both love. The sonnets fall into three clear groupings: Sonnets 1 to 126 are addressed to, or concern, a young man; Sonnets 127-152 are addressed to, or concern, a dark lady (dark in the sense of her hair, her facial features, and her character), and Sonnets 153-154 are fairly free adaptations of two classical Greek poems.

Sonnet Devices Iambic Pentameter: a certain kind of line of poetry, and has to do with the number of syllables in the line and the stressed and unstressed syllables. Shakespearean sonnets have 10 syllables Quatrain: There are fourteen lines in a Shakespearean sonnet. The first twelve lines are divided into three quatrains with four lines each. In the three quatrains the poet establishes a theme or problem and then resolves it in the final two lines, called the couplet. The rhyme scheme of the quatrains is abab cdcd efef. Couplet: when two lines in a row rhyme.

Lines: is a unit of language into which a poem or play is divided Sonnet Devices Rhyme Scheme: is the pattern of rhymes at the end of each line of a poem, beginning with the letter “A” Lines: is a unit of language into which a poem or play is divided Rhythm: demonstrates the long and short patterns through stressed and unstressed syllables