Download Shakespearean Sonnet

Shakespearean Sonnet
In Shakespeare's day, any gentleman was expected to be able to produce a sonnet in praise of
someone he loved. To write a sonnet was a challenge, a kind of game. The writer wanted to
see how well he could express his feelings while following certain rules. He also wanted to see
how close to natural
speech his formal poem could
sound.
The form of sonnet favored (but not invented) by Shakespeare came to be known as the
Shakespearean, or English, sonnet. Its 14 lines are divided into three quatrains (rhyming
stanzas of four lines each) and a concluding couplet (a pair of rhyming lines). Each quatrain
usually makes a point or presents an example, and the couplet sums up the message of the
sonnet.
Below is one of Shakespeare's most famous sonnets.
Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day?
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 sometimes 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.
(untrimmed: without
decoration)
(ow'st: own)