1. Sonnet
About sonnet
Brief History about sonnet
Shakespearean Sonnet

2. About sonnet Form of poetry, has 14 lines with a specific rhyme scheme
Topic of sonnets written in Shakespeare's time is love--or a theme related to love
usually written as part of a series, with each sonnet a sequel to the previous one, although many sonnets could stand alone as separate poems.

3. Brief history of sonnet
The sonnet originated in Sicily in the 13th Century with Giacomo da Lentino ( ), a lawyer. The poetic traditions of the Provençal region of France apparently influenced him, but he wrote his poems in the Sicilian dialect of Italian. Some authorities credit another Italian, Guittone d'Arezzo ( ), with originating the sonnet. The English word "Sonnet" comes from the Italian word "sonetto," meaning "little song." Some early sonnets were set to music, with accompaniment provided by a lute. 

4. Brief Introduction of Sonnet
The Italian poet Petrarch ( ), a Roman Catholic priest, popularized the sonnet .
The format of Petrarch's sonnets differs from that of Shakespeare. Petrarch's sonnets each consist of an eight-line stanza (octave) and a six-line stanza (sestet). The first stanza presents a theme, and the second stanza develops it. The rhyme scheme is as follows:
(1) first stanza (octave): ABBA, ABBA;
(2) second stanza (sestet): CDE, CDE.  

5. Sonnet Came to England
The sonnet form was introduced in England by Sir Thomas Wyatt ( ) and Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey ( ). They translated Italian sonnets into English and wrote sonnets of their own. Surrey introduced blank verse into the English language in his translation of the Aeneid of Vergil. Wyatt and Surrey sometimes replaced Petrarch's scheme of an eight-line stanza and a six-line stanza with three four-line stanzas and a two-line conclusion known as a couplet. Shakespeare adopted the latter scheme in his sonnets.   

6. Shakespearean Sonnets
William Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets, among which he addresses Sonnets 1 through 126 to an unidentified young man with outstanding physical and intellectual attributes . In Sonnets 127 through 154, Shakespeare devotes most of his attention to addressing a mysterious "dark lady" .

7. The rhyming pattern
The Shakespearean sonnet (also called the English sonnet) has three four-line stanzas (quatrains) and a two-line unit called a couplet. A couplet is always indented; both lines rhyme at the end. ABAB CDCD EFEF GG
The meter of Shakespeare's sonnets is iambic pentameter (except in Sonnet 145). The rhyming lines in each stanza are the first and third and the second and fourth. In the couplet ending the poem, both lines rhyme. All of Shakespeare's sonnets follow the same rhyming pattern

8. Iambic Pentameter
Shakespeare wrote his sonnets (and many of the lines in his plays) in iambic pentameter,
a technical term for a poetry pattern in which each line has 10 syllables, beginning with an unstressed syllable and a stressed syllable, followed by another pair of unstressed and stressed syllables, and so on--until there are five pairs of syllables (or ten syllables in all) .
But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks? 

9. Sonnet 18 Quatrain 1 (four-line stanza)
A Shall I compare thee to a summer’s Day?
B   Thou art more lovely and more temper ATE :
A   Rough winds do shake the darling buds of MAY,
B   And summer's lease hath all too short a DATE :

10. Sonnet 18 Quatrain 2 (four-line stanza)
C   Sometime too hot the eye of heaven SHINES,
D   And often is his gold complexion DIMM'D;
C  And every fair from fair sometime de CLINES,
D   By chance or nature's changing course un TRIMM'D;

11. Sonnet 18 Quatrain 3 (four-line stanza)
E    But thy eternal summer shall not FADE ,
F    Nor lose possession of that fair thou OWEST ,
E    Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his SHADE ,
F    When in eternal lines to time thou GROWEST ;

12. Sonnet 18 Couplet (two rhyming lines)
G    So long as men can breathe ,or eyes can SEE;
G    So long lives this, and this gives life to THEE .

13. 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;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimmed;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
Nor shall death brag thou wand’ rest 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.

14. Thank You
--presented by
Zhong Zhirong