SHAKESPEAREAN SONNET

A sonnet is a specific type of poem that is written using iambic pentameter (10 syllables per line
that alternate unstressed and then stressed). It always has 14 lines, and it also has specific
rhyme scheme.

What is a Shakespearean sonnet?

Shakespeare’s sonnets are poems of expressive ideas and thoughts that are layered with
multiple meanings, and always have two things in common:
1. All sonnets have fourteen lines
2. All sonnets are written in iambic pentameter

Shakespearean sonnets must:

• Have fourteen lines
• All sonnets are written in iambic pentameter
• Have an ABAB CDCD EFEF GG rhyme scheme
• Have three quatrains followed by a couplet
• Have a volta between the second and third stanzas

How do you write a Shakespearean rhyme scheme?

> Shakespearean sonnets usually have the rhyme scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. This means
that the first and third lines must rhyme, and the second and fourth lines must rhyme. In the
next set of four lines, the same pattern is repeated with different rhymes. The poem ends with
a rhyming couplet.
 Example of a Shakespearean sonnet:
Sonnet 18
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? - A
Thou art more lovely and more temperate: - B
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, - A
And summer's lease hath all too short a date: - B

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, - C

And often is his gold complexion dimmed; - D
And every fair from fair sometime declines, - C
By chance or nature's changing course, untrimmed; - D

But thy eternal summer shall not fade -E

Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st; - F
Nor shall Death brag thou wanderest in his shade, -E
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st: - F

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

So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. - G
WRITER’S LIFE

William Shakespeare (1564–1616) wrote sonnets on a variety of themes. When discussing or

referring to Shakespeare's sonnets, it is almost always a reference to the 154 sonnets that were
first published all together in a quarto in 1609.

• William Shakespeare was a well-known dramatist and poet.

• Started using sonnets during the Elizabethan Era.
• He is regarded as the god of English Literature.
• Shakespeare is known as one of the most prolific sonnet writers of all times. He wrote 154
sonnets which were published in 1609 by Thomas Thorpe.
• He was born on April 1564, at Stratford-upon-Avon, United Kingdom
• He died on April 23, 1616, at Stratford-upon-Avon, United Kingdom
• His wife is Anne Hathaway
•His childrens are Hamnet Shakespeare, Judith Quiney, Susanna Hall
• He has 3 siblings, Joan Shakespeare, Edmund Shakespeare, Gilbert Shakespeare, Margaret
Shakespeare
• His parents names are John Shakespeare and Mary Arden
• His resting place is Church of the Holy Trinity, Stratford-upon-Avon
• He studied at King Edward VI School
Occupations: Playwright, poet, actor
Years active: c. 1585–1613
• Shakespeare, as the son of a leading Stratford citizen, almost certainly attended Stratford's
grammar school. Like all such schools, its curriculum consisted of an intense emphasis on the
Latin classics, including memorization, writing, and acting classic Latin plays.

> Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he
married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and
Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor,
writer, and part-owner (sharer) of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later
known as the King's Men. At age 49 (around 1613), he appears to have retired to Stratford,
where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive; this has
stimulated considerable speculation about such matters as his physical appearance, his
sexuality, his religious beliefs and whether the works attributed to him were written by others.
 > Shakespeare produced most of his known works between 1589 and 1613. His early plays
were primarily comedies and histories and are regarded as some of the best works produced in
these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies until 1608, among them Hamlet, Romeo and
Juliet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth, all considered to be among the finest works in the
English language. In the last phase of his life, he wrote tragicomedies (also known as romances)
and collaborated with other playwrights.

• Shakespeare's grave, next to those of Anne Shakespeare, his wife, and Thomas Nash, the
husband of his granddaughter

> Shakespeare was buried in the chancel of the Holy Trinity Church two days after his death.
The epitaph carved into the stone slab covering his grave includes a curse against moving his
bones, which was carefully avoided during restoration of the church in 2008.

References:
http://en.m.wikipedia.org