Sonnets

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Sonnets

• Poetry terms review
• Shakespeares sonnets

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Metaphor

• A figure of speech which compares two things
  that are really not alike in most respects, but
  which seem alike in one meaningful way. In a
  metaphor, the comparison is made without the use
  of such words as like or as.

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Metaphors

• Examples
• The snow was a blanket on the field.
• The music was medicine for my sick soul.

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Similes

• A simile is a figure of speech that directly
  compares two things that are not really alike in
  most respects, but that are alike in some way
  that makes the comparison effective. In a simile,
  the comparison is always made by using specific
  comparing words such as like or as.

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Similes

• Examples
• The snow covered the field like a blanket.
• Opening the doors to my favorite stores was like
  pulling the ribbon off an unexpected present.

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Similes

• The heavily tattooed man is like a walking
  storybook.
• Lake Minnetonka is like a womans heart deep,
  murky, and mysterious.
• During the last minute of passing period,
  Wayzata High School is like a beehive, with
  students buzzing frantically around, trying to
  get to the right cell of the honeycomb on time.

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Shakespearean Sonnets The basics

• Review
• Iambic Pentameter and the English Sonnet Style
• Shakespeares sonnets (154) are written
  predominantly in iambic pentameter, a rhyme
  scheme in which each sonnet line consists of ten
  syllables.
• The syllables are divided into five pairs called
  iambs or iambic feet. An iamb is a metrical unit
  made up of one unstressed syllable followed by
  one stressed syllable. An example of an iamb
  would be good BYE. A line of iambic pentameter
  flows like this
• baBOOM / baBOOM / baBOOM / baBOOM / baBOOM.

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Sonnets

• Sonnets were most often used as love poems.
  Romeo and Juliet recite one to one another when
  they meet at the party. However, sonnets are used
  elsewhere in the play, too (such as in the
  prologues).
• The Shakespearean sonnet consists of three
  verses with four lines in each verse, then a
  fourth verse with only two lines.

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Sonnets

• The structure of it might look like this
• Xxxxxxxxxx
• Xxxxxxxxxx
• Xxxxxxxxxx
• Xxxxxxxxxx
• Xxxxxxxxxx
• Xxxxxxxxxx
• Xxxxxxxxxx
• Xxxxxxxxxx
• Xxxxxxxxxx
• Xxxxxxxxxx
• Xxxxxxxxxx
• xxxxxxxxxx
• Xxxxxxxxxx
• xxxxxxxxxx

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Sonnets

• The rhyming pattern for the first three verses
  is
• abab cdcd efef
• This means the last word of the first line
  rhymes with the last word of the third line. The
  last word of the second line rhymes with the last
  word of the fourth line in each quatrain.
• For the fourth verse (the two-line verse, known
  as a couplet) the rhyming pattern is gg. This
  means the last word of the first line rhymes with
  the last word of the second line.

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Sonnets

• Lets look at a sonnet from Romeo and Juliet
  that all of you are somewhat familiar with The
  Prologue to Act 1

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Sonnets

• Two households, both alike in dignity,
• In fair Verona (where we lay our scene),
• From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
• Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
• From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
• A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life
• Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
• Doth with their death bury their parents strife.
• The fearful passage of their death-marked love,
• And the continuance of their parents rage,
• Which but their childrens end nought could
  remove,
• Is now the two hours traffic of our stage.
• The which if you with patient ears attend,
• What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to
  mend.

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Sonnets

• The poem has 14 lines, arranged in three verses
  of four lines, and a fourth verse of two lines.
• It follows the rhyming pattern noted earlier.
• Lastly, each line contains 10 syllables
• From (1) forth (2) the (3) fatal (4,5) loins (6)
  of (7) these (8) two (9) foes (10)
• Thats your challenge.
• But theres more.