Sonnets

1. Sonnets • Generally deal with the expression of emotion, especially love. • 14 lines long • Meter - iambic pentameter

2. Shakespeare’s Sonnets • 14 lines • Written in iambic pentameter • Three quatrains & a rhyming couplet • Quatrain: group of four lines • Couplet: two lines • Rhyme scheme: abab, cdcd, efef,gg

3. Shakespeare’s Sonnets - Structure • Often, 1st quatrain introduces situation • 2nd & 3rd quatrains explore situation • Often a turn or shift in thought occurs at the 3rd quatrain or at the couplet. • Couplet resolves the situation (punch line)

4. 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 dimmed, 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 rag 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.

5. Sonnet 18 - paraphrase Shall I compare thee to a OOOOH Baby I think I summer’s day? shall compare you to a summer day Thou art more lovely But, you know, you’re prettier and more temperate: and even better, even calm Rough winds do shake Because sometimes it gets the darling buds of May, windy and the buds on the trees get shaken off And summer’s lease And sometimes summer doesn’t hath all too short a date: last very long

6. Sometime too hot the eye Sometimes it’s too hot of heaven shines, And often is his gold And pretty faces lose complexion dimmed,their shine And every fair from fair And everything gorgeous sometime declines, loses its looks By chance, or nature’s changing By getting hit by a truck courseuntrimmed: OR just because everyone and everything gets old and ugly and shabby

7. But thy eternal summer shall But (and here’s the turn) not fade, Your beauty will lastforever Nor lose possession of that I’m going to make sure fair thou ow’st, that you never lose your good looks Nor shall death rag thou And that nasty old Death wand’restin his shade, can never rag about owning you When in eternal lines to time Because I shall write this thou grow’st,poem about you

8. So long as men can breathe As long as men can or eyes can see, breathe (are you breathing?) So long lives this, and this As long as men can see gives life to thee. (Are you looking at this poem?) Then this poem lives, and it gives life and memory to your beauty.

9. Sonnet 29 When in disgrace with When I feel unlucky and as Fortune and men’s eyes, if no one likes me I all alone beweep my And I feel all alone and cry outcast state, And trouble deaf heaven And it’s as if my prayers to with my bootless cries, heaven have no power at all because no one is listening And look upon myself And I feel sorry for myself and and curse my fate, think that ‘m the unluckiest person alive

10. Wishing me like to one I wish that I had that person’s more rich in hope, opportunities Featured like him, That I looked like that cute like him with friends person and was as popular as possessed, the most popular person in my class Desiring this man’s art, Wishing that I had that man’s and that man’s scope, talent, and that man’s understanding of difficult concepts With what I most enjoy Not at all happy with the things I contented least, usually enjoy

11. Yet in these thoughts Even then, almost hating myself almost despising, myself for thinking this way Haply I think on thee, Perhaps my thoughts think and then my state, about you, and then my soul, Like to the lark at break Just like the lark that sings of day arising at the moment the light of day From sullen earth sings Breaks over the cold earth, hymns at heaven’s gate, sings a song filled with joy and light

12. For thy sweet love Because I remember the rememb’red such sweetlove we share, wealth brings, and the richness that it brings That then I scorn And, at that point, to change my state remembering what we with kings. have together, I wouldn’t change my present condition even with a king.

13. Paraphrase • Takes difficult language and explains it in easier, more understandable, language. • Usually as long as or longer than the original piece. • Generally does not contain any of the original language.

14. YOUR TURN Grab a partner & try your hand at paraphrasing sonnets 130 & 90