Shakespearean Sonnet
Shakespeare's sonnets were published in the year 1609. It is thought that Shakespeare's sonnets were stolen and then published by Thomas Thorpe. William Shakespeare wrote the sonnets to explore love from as many perspectives as possible. He wanted to tell stories through his poems.
Unlike a poem that tells a story or shows a witty observation, a sonnet is lyric poetry that shows the deep feelings and emotions of the poet. It consists of 14 lines and uses iambic pentameter. A Shakespearean Sonnet is a sonnet that consists of three quatrains and an ending couplet with a fixed rhyme scheme. The rhyme scheme is independent; Heroic quatrain 3 lines (abab cdcd efef) - heroic couplet (gg)
Shakespearean Sonnet Structure
1) Rhyme Scheme: the rhyme scheme in a Shakespearean sonnet is "abab cdcd efef gg"
2) Meter: this type of sonnet has a metric line of "iambic pentameter"
3) Structure: the sonnet consists of 3 quatrains showing a situation with a Volta within the couplet at the end
4) Volta: the turn of thought or argument
General Contents of Shakespeare's 154 sonnets:
* A motif of Shakespearean sonnet ; the praise of beauty and the urge to marry to a young man.*
1) 1-17 sonnets: A suggestion of marriage to a young, handsome guy(writer's best friend)
2) 18-126 sonnets: A Story between a writer(Shakespeare) and a guy (maybe the guy mentioned in 1-17 sonnets)
3) 127-152 sonnets: A Story about a writer's lover(who fell in love with the guy who is the writer's best friend)
4) 153,154 sonnets: Love story of a writer(Shakespeare)
Listen to Sonnet 14 as performed by Socratica on YouTube.
A Not from the stars do I my judgement pluck,
B And yet methinks I have astronomy;
A But not to tell of good or evil luck,
B Of plagues, of dearths, or seasons' quality;
C Nor can I fortune to brief minutes tell,
D Pointing to each his thunder, rain, and wind,
C Or say with princes if it shall go well
D By oft predict that I in heaven find
E But from thine eyes my knowledge I derive,
F And, constant stars, in them I read such art
E As truth and beauty shall together thrive
F If from thyself to store thou wouldst convert:
G Or else of thee this I prognosticate,
G They end is truth's and beatuy's doom and date.
Listen to Sonnet 18 as performed by Socratica on YouTube.
A Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
B Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
A Rough winds to shake the dearling buds of May,
B And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
C Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
D And often is his gold complexion dimmed,
C And every fair from fair sometimes declines,
D By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed:
E But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
F Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,
E Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
F When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st,
G So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
G So long lives this, and this gives life to thee
MEMORIES OF PEACE by Emporia State student, Liz
The snow falls soft outside the cabin walls.
Inside two sleepers stir upon their bed.
Awakening from slumber to snowfall
one sleeper turns; all trace of sleep has fled
The peace he feels in silence after dawn
a careful blanket warm against the cold.
The weight of fear he feels is all but gone,
Bring in the new and out with all the old.
That cabin now lies sad in disrepair,
THe man has given over to despair.