Eighth Grade Literary Analysis Unit

Shakespearean Sonnets

The Basics

Shakespeare the Poet

Shakespeare wrote in verse (rhyming poetry*) in his plays & poems:

Followed tradition of ancient Greeks.

Verse was easier to memorize.

• *(note: verse doesn’t always rhyme in the plays)

Characters use verse to emote or show high social status.

Shakespeare’s verse=Iambic Pentameter

Iambic Pentameter is...

10 syllables long (5 metric feet)

Stress placed on every second syllable.

Sounds like a heart beat:

da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM

Opening lines from Romeo & Juliet:

Two HOUSEholds BOTH aLIKE in DIGniTY

(In FAIR VeROna WHERE we LAY our SCENE)

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A Shakespearean sonnet is...

a 14 line lyric poem

written in iambic pentameter

uses the rhyme scheme abab, cdcd, efef, gg

can be divided into three quatrains and a couplet

concerns the theme of love

A quatrain is...

a stanza or poem of four lines

each of Shakespeare’s three quatrains contains its own idea or metaphor

A couplet is...

a pair of lines in poetry that have the same length and rhyme scheme

either summarize the sonnet or offer a new view on the proceeding lines (twist)

To paraphrase...

Means to take difficult language and explain it in easier, more understandable language.

It is usually as long as and sometimes longer than the original piece.

It does not contain any of the original language.