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Exploring Shakespearean Sonnets

In this exercise, you will learn about

Shakespearian sonnets. You will

learn what makes up a

Shakespearean sonnet and listen to

a sonnet being read. Finally, you

will write a sonnet of your own! To

complete the activities, type into

the “lined paper” section at the left.

Look at the “notes” section below

each slide for any additional

directions.

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What makes a Shakespearean sonnet?Let me not to the marriage of true mindsAdmit impediments. Love is not loveWhich alters when it alteration finds,Or bends with the remover to remove:

O, no! it is an ever-fixed mark,That looks on tempests and is never shaken;It is the star to every wandering bark,Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.

Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeksWithin his bending sickle's compass come;Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

If this be error and upon me proved,I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

A sonnet is a poem composed of 14 lines with a specific rhyme scheme. A Shakespearean sonnet contains three sets of four lines (quatrains) and one set of two lines (couplet).

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What makes a Shakespearean sonnet?Let me not to the marriage of true mindsAdmit impediments. Love is not loveWhich alters when it alteration finds,Or bends with the remover to remove:

O, no! it is an ever-fixed mark,That looks on tempests and is never shaken;It is the star to every wandering bark,Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.

Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeksWithin his bending sickle's compass come;Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

If this be error and upon me proved,I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

A Shakespearean sonnet has a rhyme scheme of ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. Each letter corresponds to a different sound at the end of the line. This means that all lines with a letter “A” end in the same sound, or they rhyme. The same is true for each letter.

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What makes a Shakespearean sonnet?Let me not to the marriage of true mindsAdmit impediments. Love is not loveWhich alters when it alteration finds,Or bends with the remover to remove:

O, no! it is an ever-fixed mark,That looks on tempests and is never shaken;It is the star to every wandering bark,Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.

Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeksWithin his bending sickle's compass come;Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

If this be error and upon me proved,I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

Finally, a Shakespearean sonnet is written in a rhythm called iambic pentameter. This means that each line contains five pairs of syllables, an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. You might think of iambic pentameter as a heartbeat, the unstressed syllables being the “lub” and the stressed syllables the “DUB” : lub-DUB lub-DUB.

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Lend me your ears!Let me not to the marriage of true mindsAdmit impediments. Love is not loveWhich alters when it alteration finds,Or bends with the remover to remove:

O, no! it is an ever-fixed mark,That looks on tempests and is never shaken;It is the star to every wandering bark,Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.

Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeksWithin his bending sickle's compass come;Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

If this be error and upon me proved,I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

Click on the image below to hear a reading of Shakespeare's Sonnet #116. Listen closely and see if you can identify the rhyme and rhythm that of the Shakespearean sonnet.

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Now it's your turn!

Remember, a Shakespearean sonnet has:

•14 lines—3 quatrains and a couplet.•ABAB CDCD EFEF GG rhyme.•Iambic pentameter.