sonnet writing

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 1

poetry class: Sonnet 18

please join me VIA THE CLASS!
Code G1A:  wkgqi

Code A1A: vcifx

lesson objectives:

* you know what Sonnet 18 is about

* you know how to make a sonnet:
- iambic pentameter

- rhyming scheme

* you write a sonnet

What is the super short summary of Sonnet 18?

1. if I compare you to summer, summer wins
2. if I compare you to summer, you win
3. if I compare you to summar, it is a tie
4. something about summer and you?

how to... write a sonnet

1. All Shakespearean sonnets have 14 lines

2. All Shakespearean sonnets are written in iambic pentameter

14 lines?

Your 14 line sonnet must be written in three sets of four lines and one set of two lines.

1. The first quatrain will have lines that end in a rhyme scheme like this: ABAB, for example, ‘day’, ‘temperate’, ‘may’, ‘date’.

2. The second quatrain will use different words to rhyme scheme like this: CDCD, for example, ‘shines’, ‘dimmed’, ‘declines’, ‘untrimmed’.

3. The third quatrain needs different words again, to rhyme scheme like this: EFEF, for example, ‘fade’, ‘lowest’, ‘shade’, ‘growest’.

4. You now have your three Shakespearean quatrains – that’s 12 lines. Remember that a Shakespearean sonnet always has 14 lines, so you need two final lines – called a couplet. The rhyme scheme for this is GG, using words you haven’t used in the rhyming so far, for example, ‘see’ and thee’.

The rhyme pattern of your 14 line sonnet should now look like this: ABAB CDCD EFEF GG

www.nosweatshakespeare.com

So... A quatrain is...

1. 4 lines, in which some lines rhyme
2. 4 lines, in which line 1&3, and 2&4 rhyme
3. 4 lines, in which 1&2, and 3&4 rhyme
4. a special train, a quatrain

A couplet is...

1. a couple with a typo T
2. two lines at the end
3. two lines at the end that rhyme
4. two lines at the end that rhyme and conclude the sonnet

step 2:

Iambic pentameter.

Iambic pentameter

Ambus is another word for a two-syllable foot.
The first syllable will normally be unstressed and the second stressed.
For example, de/light, the sun, for/lorn, one day, re/lease. 

Every line of your sonnet must have five feet (so 10 syllables).
Pentameter means five and iambic pentameter simply means five feet. Shakespeare uses iambic pentameter.

let's try iambic pentameter in normal sentences:

‘I wonder what my friends will think of this?’
‘If I were you I’d watch out what I say.’
‘He never ever told me what to do.’
‘It’s easy when you think of it like that.’

Iambic pentameter has to do with...

1. five feet and rhythm of stressed and unstressed syllables
2. something with five and lots of stress
3. meters and syllables
4. Shakespeare was a nutcase

Write a sonnet, in modern English!

0. write a title: your topic
1. Use the following rhyming scheme: ABAB CDCD EFEF GG
- rhymezone.com
- the couplet at the end is the conclusion

2. Use iambic pentameter:
10 syllables, each second syllable is stressed.
IT IS EASY TO CHECK THE STRESS BY SAYING IT OUT LOUD!

Please don't swear in yours ;)

every time I go to school it s&*!s

every class I hate it even more

I can't stop looking at the different clocks

and from the beamers my eyes get very sore