Download LA4-Sonnets-student

Sonnets, or…
…how do I love poems? Let me
count the ways….
Purpose
• To present and reflect on a “problem” and
its “solution” in a rhymed, metered,
structured poem.
Characteristics/Form
• 14 lines
• Iambic Pentameter
• Three quatrains and one couplet
(Shakespearean)
• abab cdcd efef gg
• Contains a “turn” – a shift in
tone/mood/perspective, usually between
the quatrains and the couplet
Example
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 dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st 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.
Break it down
• Rhyme scheme:
day
a
temperate b
May
a
date
b
shines
c
dimm'd
d
declines
c
untrimm'd d
fade
e
ow'st
f
shade
e
grow'st
f
see
g
thee
g
“u” = unstressed syllable
“/” = stressed syllable
Combined these are one “Iam” – u /
Five Iams equals Iambic Pentameter:
u
/
u
/
u
/ u
/
u
/
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
U /
u / u /
u
/
u /
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
u
/
u
/
u
/ u
/
u /
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
u
/
u
/
u / u
/ u /
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Break it down some more
•
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:
You are prettier and calmer, more moderate, than a
summer’s day.
Spring brings with it high winds, and summer
disappears too quickly.
•
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimm'd;
Sometimes the sun is too hot in the summer
And sometimes the sun goes behind the clouds
Everything beautiful fades either by chance or
because it just naturally gets old.
•
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st;
But your youth will not disappear
And you won’t lose your beauty
And Death won’t be able to say you belong to him
because you will live on in a poem
•
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
As long as men are alive and can read, this poem will
be alive and thus so will you.
Break it down some more some
more
• Personification? Check.
– The sun is given an eye and a complexion
– Death is able (or not) to brag
• “Turn” in tone? Check
– Lines 1-8 describe a problem: Nature is variable
and brief, and everything good fades away
– Lines 9-14 present a solution: I will write this poem,
and everyone will remember you, thus you’ll be
immortal
Break it down some more some
more some more
• Who is the poem about? Has the “thee” really been given
immortality?
– If you say “yes,” then describe her. What does she look like? What is
her personality really like?
– If you say “no,” then who has achieved immortality? Who continues to
be known thanks to this poem?
• Oh, and just as a further point of interest, look at the first two
lines again. What kind of stress does “I” get, and what kind of
stress does “thou” get? (And who is “I” and who is “thou”?)