The Shakespearean Sonnet

Sonnet 14 line poem of praise that contains A. rhyme scheme B. iambic pentameter C. content and structure

Sonnet Rhyme Scheme Petrarchan/Italian Shakespearean/ English / Elizabethan Petrarchan/Italian A believe B round B sound A eve A retrieve B found B wound A achieve CCC grow / show / below CDE grow / gap / break EDC break / gap / grow Etc. A believe B round A eve B sound C words D soft C birds D aloft E song F crossed E long F lost G same G came

Iambic Pentameter Iambic pentameter = five iambs in a single line Iamb = two syllables of unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable ba-BUM Example: My cat is eating casserole and cake. My CAT is Eating CAsseROLE and CAKE

Iambic Pentameter But soft, what light through yonder window breaks? The poetry of Earth is never dead. the POetRY of EARTH is NEVer DEAD

Iambic Pentameter WRONG: i LOVE you so MUCH, i FEEL like my HEART is Going to EXPLODE. Right: my LOVE is LIKE a STICK of DYnaMITE

Content & Structure Content Structure Praise someone or something Shakespearean Sonnet: 3 quatrains Quatrain = 4 lines of poetry 3rd quatrain has a volta Volta = turn or shift 1 couplet Couplet = 2 lines of poetry that have end rhyme

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 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 ow’st; Nor shall death brag thou wander’st 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.