THE SONNET
The Reading
Shakespeare
• Notice, mark and define difficult vocabulary
Background 1st. (Things that will distract you.)
• Shakespeare wrote 154 Sonnets • Separate into 4 parts and make notes to
• #1-126 are referred to as The Fair Youth Sonnets create meaning.
• #78-86 are The Rival Poet Sonnets • Do try to “TRANSLATE” Shakespeare word
• #127 – 152 are known as The Dark Lady Sonnets for word. After all it IS English, even if it IS
Elizabethan English purposely written as poetry in
Iambic pentameter. (Yes, he even wrote the plays as poetry. No,
Basics this is NOT how Elizabethan people really spoke.) You do not
• They have 14 lines divided into 4 translate English as you read; you simply understand
subgroups: 3 quatrains and a couplet. the “gist” or the message. It’s the same with
Shakespeare.
• Each line is typically ten syllables, • Read it more than once. No one “gets” a
poem in its entirety the 1st time they read
phrased in iambic pentameter. it. (If they say they do, they are lying.)
• A Shakespearean sonnet employs • Listen to a professional read it whenever possible:
the rhyme scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF Dame Helen Mirren or Sir Patrick Stewart (He also gives a
GG bit of explanation, too. It’s lovely.) will NOT disappoint!!
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate: • STEP 1: What words
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, distract you from finding
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date; meaning? (Find & Define)
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, • STEP 2: Break the sonnet
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd; into its separate parts. (3
quatrains & 1 couplet)
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
• STEP 3: Where is the
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm'd; VOLTA? (Either draw a line OR an *
But thy eternal summer shall not fade, next to it.)
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st; • STEP 4: “Translate” what
Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade, Will is saying in each
part. (Scribble notes and ideas to
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st: explain what is happening.)
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, • STEP 5: What is the
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. overall meaning?
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Vocabulary
Thou art more lovely and more temperate: • Temperate: Not susceptible
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, to extremes. The word often carries
moral undertones and is closely related to
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date; the word "temperance," which suggests
moderation and self-control. Yet
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, "temperate" can also refer to pleasant
weather that is neither too hot nor too
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd; cold.
And every fair from fair sometime declines, • Lease: allotted time
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm'd; • Complexion: skin
But thy eternal summer shall not fade, • Fair: Beautiful / Light
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st; • Untrimmed: plain
Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade, • Possession: own something
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st: • Ow’st: own
* So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
