Independent Shakespearean Sonnet Project



English or Shakespearean Sonnets

Definition:

• Three Quatrains, 1 couplet, 14 lines

• Shakespearean Sonnet – three quatrains (4 line stanzas) followed by rhyming couplet. First quatrain introduces a situation which is explored in the next two quatrains. Often a turning point or shift occurs in the third quatrain and/or couplet. The couplet can also be used to resolve the situation. The rhyme scheme is abab cdcd efef gg.

• Volta – also known as the turning point or shift in a sonnet (very similar to a climax in literature).

Assignment for Sonnets:

1. Fill in the stanza-by-stanza analysis of each of the textbook sonnets on the separate “Shakespearean Sonnet” handout.

2. Complete the assigned questions from the textbook for each sonnet.

3. Research Shakespearean Sonnet Themes: Most of Shakespeare’s sonnets were an expression of love – but the lesson about love from each sonnet shifts as the sonnets become more and more about the ability to hold on to the love expressed or to see clearly through that love. In each sonnet, identify how the speaker focuses on one of these lessons.

4. Examine the Shakespearean sonnets for figurative language such as metaphors, similes, personification, and imagery. Identify an example of at least one per sonnet and explain its use.

Shakespearean Sonnets Questions: Please turn these questions in for a grade.

Sonnets in Textbook:

✓ Outline Shakespeare p. 324

✓ Take notes on Shakespearean Sonnet, p. 325

o Define quatrain & couplet

o Identify the typical rhyme scheme

o Define Volta

✓ Read the following sonnets in class:

o “Sonnet 18”, p. 326, 1-2

o “Sonnet 29”, p. 328, 1-2

o “Sonnet 116”, p. 329, 1-3

o “Sonnet 130”, p. 330, 1-8 p. 332

Small Group Analysis: Identify the following -

o Volta, or turning point

o Rhyme Scheme

o Line-by-line analysis

o Symbolism and Figurative Language

o Theme Statement

Sonnet 73

That time of year thou mayst in me behold

When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang

Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,

Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.

In me thou see'st the twilight of such day

As after sunset fadeth in the west;

Which by and by black night doth take away,

Death's second self, that seals up all in rest.

In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire,

That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,

As the death-bed, whereon it must expire,

Consumed with that which it was nourish'd by.

This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong,

To love that well, which thou must leave ere long.

Independent Project: Follow the link and select any of the 154 Shakespearean Sonnets except for 1, 18, 29, 73, 116, or 130.

Once you have selected a Shakespearean sonnet, follow the directions below:

1. Analyze the sonnet for meaning (line by line & overall main idea), including the Volta.

2. Identify all figurative language (at least two examples of simile, metaphor, personification and/or imagery) and what is represents in connection with the meaning.

3. Identify what makes the sonnet an English sonnet (rhyme scheme and main idea).

4. Present this info in a typed one page bulleted analysis, including the sonnet.

Example

|Sonnet 116 |A Paraphrase of SONNET 116 |

|1 Let me not to the marriage of true minds |(Lines 1-2) Although legal marriages have barriers to prevent them [like close|

|2 Admit impediments . Love is not love |genes or being currently married], I don't believe in any such barriers to the|

|3 Which alters when it alteration finds, |union between true lovers. |

|4 Or bends with the remover to remove. |(2-3) Love isn't really love if it changes when we notice our beloved has |

|5 Oh no! It is an ever fixed mark |changed. |

|6 That looks on tempests and is never shaken. |(4-5) Love doesn't vary when someone tries to lure us away from our beloved. |

|7 It is the star to every wandering bark , |(5-6) No way! Love is like a rock, and storms can't undermine it. |

|8 Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken . |(7-8) Love is a constant guide to us as we sail through life, but we can't |

|9 Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks |really see its true value even if we can quantify love somehow. |

|10 Within his bending sickle's compass come. |(9-10) Love doesn't vary with time, even if the glow of youthfulness passes |

|11 Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, |from our beloved's face. |

|12 But bears it out even to the edge of doom . |(11-12) Love doesn't vary because of time; it stays constant even until death.|

|13 If this be error and upon me proved, | |

|14 I never writ , nor no man ever loved . |(13-14) If I'm wrong about love, then I never wrote anything [worthwhile since|

| |almost all my writings are about love somehow] and nobody has been in love. |

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