Sonnets 101 Miss Hutchinson

Breaking Down Sonnet 18 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 owest; Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st 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. Should I compare you to a summer’s day? You are more beautiful and more constant: Rough winds shake and change the flowers in May, And summer does not last very long: Sometimes the sun is too hot, And often the sun’s light becomes dimmed; Everything beautiful eventually loses beauty, By chance/ fate or because of nature’s course (time); But your beauty shall not fade, Nor will you lose possession of it; Not even death can claim you or your beauty as his own, Because in these lines you will live forever. As long as people exist on earth, This poem will survive, keeping you and your memory alive (immortalizing you).

What makes a poem a sonnet? Overall structure: – Stanzas – Couplets – Rhyme scheme Specific line structure: – Iambic pentameter STRUCTURE!

Stanzas and Couplets 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 owest; Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st 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. All Sonnets have: 3 stanzas consisting of 4 lines each A couplet that wraps up the sonnet Rhyme Scheme: All Sonnets follow a specific rhyme pattern… ABABCDCDEFEFGGABABCDCDEFEFGG

Iambic Pentameter Iambic: “iamb” a duo of syllables that is unstressed and stressed Pentameter: penta (5) meters (pattern of syllables in a line of poetry) Therefore, iambic pentameter= 5 duos/couples of unstressed and stressed syllables in a line of poetry… 10 syllables total per line.

…But WHY? Challenge! Determine who was the best! – Everyone given the same form= what can you DO with it? Practice! – Musicians practice with scales; poets practiced with sonnets. Shakespeare changed the game and altered the concept of the sonnet.