Sonnet Analysis and Writing

Sonnet Analysis and Writing

Read the following instructions carefully before attempting the questions.

This worksheet will test your understanding of sonnet structure, rhyme scheme, and thematic development. You will also have the opportunity to write your own sonnet.

Read the following sonnet by William Shakespeare and answer the questions that follow.

Sonnet 18: Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

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 often 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 wander’st 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. What is the rhyme scheme of Shakespeare's Sonnet 18?

2. Sonnets typically consist of   lines and are written in   pentameter.

3. The turning point or shift in a sonnet's argument or tone is called the  .

4. Explain the main theme of Sonnet 18 and how Shakespeare uses imagery to convey it.

5. A Petrarchan sonnet has a rhyme scheme of ABAB CDCD EFEF GG.

6. Write your own 14-line sonnet, following either the Shakespearean (ABAB CDCD EFEF GG) or Petrarchan (ABBA ABBA CDECDE or CDCDCD) rhyme scheme. Your sonnet should explore the theme of 'change' or 'endurance'. Pay attention to meter (iambic pentameter is preferred but not strictly required for this exercise) and develop your chosen theme throughout the poem, including a volta (turn) in the appropriate place.