1. William Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet
Act 1 Scene 5
Sonnet / Iambic Pentamter

2. If I profane with my unworthiest hand
ROMEO
If I profane with my unworthiest hand
This holy shrine, the gentle fine is this:
My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand
To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss
1st Quatrain (4 line stanza) in rhyme scheme ABAB

3. Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much,
JULIET
Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much,
Which mannerly devotion shows in this
For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch
And palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss
2nd Quatrain (4 line stanza) in rhyme scheme CDCD

4. Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too JULIET
ROMEO
Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too
JULIET
Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer.
Then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do
They pray, grant thou, lest faith turn to despair
3rd Quatrain (4 line stanza) in rhyme scheme EFEF

5. Saints do not move, though grant for prayers' sake. ROMEO
JULIET
Saints do not move, though grant for prayers' sake.
ROMEO
Then move not, while my prayer's effect I take
Couplet (2 line stanza) in rhyme scheme GG

6. First quatrain: An exposition of the main theme and main metaphor.
Second quatrain: Theme and metaphor extended or complicated; often, some imaginative example is given.
Third quatrain: Peripeteia (twist or conflict), often introduced by a "but" (very often leading off the ninth line).
Couplet: Summarizes and leaves the reader with a new, concluding image.

7. 1st Quatrain sets up metaphor of Romeo as unworthy yet aggressive Pilgrim
2nd Quatrain extends metaphor previously established and complicates it with the idea of Juliet as a saint
3rd Quatrain introduces the dilemma of the kiss. Also foreshadows future conflict.
Couplet concludes they will kiss however Juliet will not actively participate; she allows Romeo to act.

8. When Romeo and Juliet meet they speak just fourteen lines before their first kiss. These fourteen lines make up a shared sonnet (resembles a relationship).
A sonnet is a perfect, idealized poetic form often used to write about love. Encapsulating the moment of origin of Romeo and Juliet’s love within a sonnet therefore creates a perfect match between literary content and formal style.

9. The use of the sonnet also serves a second, darker purpose.
The play’s Prologue is a single sonnet of the same rhyme scheme as Romeo and Juliet’s shared sonnet (iambic pentameter).
The Prologue sonnet introduces the play and, through its description of Romeo and Juliet’s eventual death, also creates the sense of fate that permeates Romeo and Juliet.
The shared sonnet therefore creates a formal link between their love and their destiny. With a single sonnet, Shakespeare finds a means of expressing perfect love and linking it to a tragic fate.

10. Shakespeare’s Craft Opposition Word Play
What fray was here…tell me not for I have heard it all…heres MUCH TO DO WITH HATE BUT MORE WITH LOVE…WHY THEN OF BRAWLING LOVE OH LOVING THE OH ANYTHING OF NOTHING FIRST CREATE, OH HEAVY LIGHTNESS SERIOUS VANITY MISHAPEN CHAOS OF WELLSEEMING FORMS FEATHER OF LEAD COLD FIRE SICK HEALTH STILL WAKING SLEEP THIS LOVE FEEL I THAT FEEL NO LOVE IN THIS

11. Yay…Done with Summer Semester!