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Intro to Shakespeare
Week 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.

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" .
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

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?

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 :
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;
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 ;
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 .
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.
The Sonnet
-Why was the sonnet popular? Why does it work so well?
Was it just tradition?
-Most pop songs follow a similar format (V/C/V/C/B/C/C).
Format is a tool.
-It contains all “parts” in just 14 lines– expositing,
elaborating, twisting, resolving.
-It contains cues to organize each section.
Verse: Iambic Pentameter
-Each line consists of “feet” (heel + toes)
= Ten syllables per line
De-dum-de-dum-de-dum-de-dum-de-dum
-Here’s a line with stresses where you’d expected
to find them:
Verse: Iambic Pentameter
“Repent what’s past, avoid what is to come”
(Hamlet, III 4 141)
-If every line had this pattern, the play would get
monotonous, so this is just a framework.
-Shakespeare varies from it in subtle ways to achieve
certain effects.
-This irregular stress is called modulation. Ex.:
Verse: Iambic Pentameter
[King Hamlet’s Ghost:]
“I am thy father’s spirit,
Doomed for a certain term to walk the night,
And for the day confin’d to fast in fires,
Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature
Are burnt and purged away. But that I am forbid
To tell the secrets of my prison-house
I could a tale unfold whose lightest word
Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood,
Make thy two eyes like stars start from their spheres,
Thy knotty and combined locks to part,
And each particular hair to stand on end
Like quills upon the fretful porcupine.
Verse: Iambic Pentameter
Another example of modulation, from King Lear:
[Lear:]
“Why should a dog, a horse, a rat have life,
And thou no breath at all? Thou’lt come no more
Never, never, never, never, never.”
-Here, Lear speaks a line the stress pattern of which is wholly inverted. What
does this emphasize?