The Sonnet: Strict Structure

William Shakespeare wrote ______.

Sonnets have a total of ______lines, divided into ______.

A quatrain is a ______made up of ______lines.

The English Sonnet ends with a ______which is a ______.

Each quatrain ______and the couplet ______.

Iambic Pentameter: ______feet of iambs

Iambs : two ______: unstressed syllable followed by a syllable, as in a-VOID, a-GREE,be-TWEEN

Pentameter: A line of verse consisting of ______metrical feet.

SONNET 130
My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damask'd, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.
  1. Mark the quatrains with brackets.
  2. Mark the couplet with brackets.
  3. Mark the rhyme scheme with appropriate letters.
  4. Mark the iambs, feet, and meter of the first four lines (go back to your notes if you’ve forgotten how to do this).
  5. Identify (by marking in the margins of the poem) one simile and two metaphors. What is the persona trying to accomplish or say by making these comparisons?
  6. To what conclusion does the persona come in the final couplet?

Independent practice: use Shakespeare’s sonnet 18 to answer the questions below.

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 oft' 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 owest;

Nor shall Death brag thou wanderest in his shade,

When in eternal lines to time thou growest:

So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,

So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

  1. Mark the quatrains with brackets.
  2. Mark the couplet with brackets.
  3. Mark the rhyme scheme with appropriate letters.
  4. Mark the iambs, feet, and meter of the first four lines
  5. The persona begins by wondering if he should compare his beloved to a summer’s day. How does he answer his question? What reasons does he give in line 2 for rejecting the comparison?
  6. In lines 2-8, the persona continues to think about his comparison. What imagery does he use to show that summer weather is unpredictable?
  7. Explain the metaphor and personification in lines 5-8. Why is the “eye of heaven” neither constant nor trustworthy?
  8. In the third quatrain, the persona makes a daring statement to his beloved. What does he claim will never happen?
  9. Has the poet’s bold assertion in the couplet come true? If so, how?
  10. Summarize the main ideas of each quatrain and the couplet by using the graphic organizer:

Quatrain 1 Main idea:
Quatrain 2 Main idea:
Quatrain 3 Main idea:
Couplet Summary: