Blogger #10
Andy Chen
Period 5
11/19/2020 Cycle B
Freshman Lit 2021
Aim: How can further implementation of our poetry skills enhance our exploration and analysis of Shakespearean Sonnets?
Do Now: With your partner, consider the word “Summer”. What symbolic meanings or connotations are usually associated with this word? Why?
The lesson started with a Do Now. We were split into breakout rooms to discuss connotations and symbolic meanings we thought of when we heard the word “summer”. I thought of how summer had a positive connotation and how I often associated it with having fun. Every summer, I would go on vacations with my family or spend time with friends. When the breakout rooms ended, we all got back together to discuss our answers to the Do Now. One of my classmates said that they connected “summer” to freedom, and I thought that was a good symbolic meaning.
After the Do Now, we analyzed the structure of a Shakespearean sonnet. Sonnets are 14 - line poems that are typically about love or romance. They are divided into 4 parts. The first 3 parts are known as quatrains. They each have 4 lines. The final part is a 2 - line rhyming couplet. The rhyming structure is ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. Each letter represents a line and lines that are the same letter end in rhyming words. Sonnets are written in iambic pentameter. We watched a video that goes more in-depth to what iambic pentameters are. We learned that an iambic foot contains two syllables, the first unstressed and the second unstressed. An iambic pentameter consists of five iambic feet (hence the prefix penta-, meaning five).
We then began to analyze one of Shakespeare’s most iconic sonnets: Sonnet 18. We were to read and annotate the poem in our groups, then answer six questions about it. When we came back together, we discussed the questions and possible meaning behind Sonnet 18. We concluded that Sonnet 18 is about comparing the speaker’s love for a woman to summer. In quatrain one, the speaker says that the woman is more lovely and temperate than a summer’s day. We concluded that the sonnet’s overall theme was that written poetry will last forever, and if the poetry does, then so does the speaker’s love for the woman.
We then analyzed another one of Shakespeare’s sonnets. This time, it was Sonnet 130. We broke up into groups again to analyze and answer questions about the poem, then we returned to discuss. This time, we learned that Sonnet 130 was a parody, or a comical imitation, of other sonnets. This time, the speaker tells the reader, through use of literary devices such as imagery, that the mistress that he likes has flaws. The speaker tells us that the breath of her mistress reeks and that the hair on her head is comparable to black wires. However, the speaker still says that these flaws don’t detract from his love for the mistress. The overall theme is that physical qualities shouldn’t deter love. Sonnet 130 depicts more realistic expectations than some other sonnets.
Reflection - I think that this lesson definitely helped me understand one of the most iconic styles of poetry in history. Some of the aspects of the sonnet were a bit difficult to understand like the iambic pentameter, but the inclusion of the video really helped clear things up. Shakespeare’s sonnets were very interesting to learn about, and I think today’s lesson allowed for fantastic and productive study of them.
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