Aim: How can further implementations of our poetry skills enhance our exploration and analysis of Shakespearean Sonnets?
Today’s Do Now:
With your partner, consider the word “Summer”. What symbolic meanings or connotations are usually associated with this word? Why?
Students were given some time to think about this question and formulate an answer. When people started to reconvene and share answers, people started to answer positively. Their main thought process was in the direction of nice weather and vacations. However, one particular student changed the thought process overall. Mentioning topics like forest fires to emphasize her point, one student explained how summer is not all good and can have bad aspects to it as well. This really changed my point of view regarding this topic and broadened my thought process of many things, thinking about how everything has a bad aspect and nothing is ever perfect.
After discussing the do now, we moved onto slide 2, in which we learned about Shakespearean Sonnets through the use of Spirit Reading.
Spirit Reading is where every student has the open opportunity to read sections of reading, passage, or instruction. You do not have to ask to read, you just start.
We learned the following about sonnets:
They are 14 line poems.
Usually about love and romance
They are divided into four parts, which are three quatrains (4 line stanzas) and a rhyming 2 sentence stanza at the end
Generally, the first quatrain would introduce the subject, while the second quatrain complicates it and the third resolves or changes it in some way.
Sonnets follow the rhyme sequence of ABAB CDCD EFEF GG, where each letter represents the last word of a sentence or line, and each letter rhymes with its pair.
Lastly, sonnets are written in iambic pentameter, which is a metric line consisting of unstressed syllables followed by stressed syllables)
Each syllable is either stressed or hard depending on the pronunciation of the letters.
Stressed syllables are marked with a / and unstressed syllables are marked with u.
An Iambic foot contains two syllables, the first being unstressed and the second stressed.
Iambic measure is sometimes called the heartbeat meter due to its similarity to the rhythm of a heart. Here are some examples:
/ u / u / u
Phoenix Forbid Repair
Iambic pentameter is a line of five iambic feet. It has a total of 10 syllables, following the pattern of the iambic foot.
This link helps explain iambic pentameters more in-depth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-tayWCupD8&ab_channel=ShakespeareCoach
We were then tasked with labeling the iambic pentameter symbols in the following lines:
/ u / u / u / u / u
Often, a pet’s soft wine outcries the son’s.
/ u / u / u / u / u
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
After completing these questions and both reading the information as well as watching the video, I felt like I had a pretty good grasp on the iambic and sonnet topic.
On the next slide, we learned that Sonnet 18 is Shakespeare’s most famous sonnet, and saw the mnemonic chart to keep in mind.
Speaker
Imagery
Form
Figurative Language
Tone/theme
Setting or Devices of Sound
Irony
Symbolism
As a class, we moved onto spirit reading Sonnet 18 itself. We were also given this link to visit and watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42_QOaCL8uc&ab_channel=Shmoop
After doing so, we were divided into our respective groups to answer the following questions:
Using the capital letters A-G, mark the poem for its rhyme scheme. In Quatrain One: According to the speaker, how does this subject compare to summer? Which does he prefer?
In Quatrain Two: What are the problems the speaker has in summer?
What does line 7 mean (“and every fair from fair sometime declines”)?
3.) In Quatrain Three: According to the speaker, what is the main difference between the subject of the sonnet and summer?
4.) Rhyming Couplet: Look at lines 13-14. What is the speaker saying in the conclusion of the sonnet? Does this confirm the messages expressed in the rest of the sonnet or alter them in some way?
5.) What is the theme of this sonnet?
What is the speaker’s attitude toward the subject?
After discussing these questions, my group decided on answers that were all relatively the same. We pulled from this that the speaker uses many metaphors to compare the subject to summer. He explains how the subject is all of the good parts of summer and none of the bad, while summer has good and bad parts to it. He mentions how summer always comes to an end, but the subject will live forever in eternal beauty. I believe we learned about this famous sonnet because of the beauty of how it is written, and to show to us how deeply metaphors can express feelings that cannot be expressed otherwise. I will use this to take on a wiser and broader aspect of life and look at things in many different ways, trying different approaches for every challenge I face.
After regrouping and discussing our answers, we saw that the majority of the class had the same viewpoint on the questions. We moved onto the next sonnet, which was sonnet 130. The class spirit read the sonnet, and then we were divided into our respective groups yet again. These are the questions for that sonnet:
Identify the rhyme scheme (by marking the poem) using the letters A-G.
In Quatrain One: How does the speaker describe his mistress? What specific attributes does he reference?
In Quatrain Two: How does the speaker speak to her cheeks, and her breath?
In Quatrain Three: According to the speaker, how does he address his mistress’ voice and walk?
How does this contrast with what most people would claim about their mistresses?
Rhyming Couplet: Look at lines 13-14. What is the speaker saying in the conclusion of the sonnet? Why does the poet think his love is rare?
How does the poet play with conventional stereotypes of love poetry?
How is the speaker's lover an inversion or parody (an imitation of the style of a particular writer, artist, or genre with deliberate exaggeration for comic effect) of the Petrarchan (A Petrarchan lover is melodramatic, self-consciously suffering and has given himself up to the power of his mistress) and medieval lover?
How has Shakespeare used juxtaposition, and for what purpose?
In what way(s) has the writer’s focus on physical beauty enhanced the emphasis and relevance on the theme for society at the time?
How is this theme still relevant and prevalent today?
Yet again, my group had the same viewpoint on the answers after reading the sonnet and looking at the questions. We agreed on the fact that this sonnet was actually the opposite of the cliches of sonnets. Instead of praising and comparing a loved one to something beautiful, this sonnet explained how the subject was physically unappealing and unattractive by using metaphors to compare them to things of the same suit. The speaker mentions multiple things, such as how the subject's lips and cheeks are pale, their hair is wiry, and their breath reeks. He concludes by noting how it is not physical beauty that matters, it is internal beauty that matters, and that is where the most important feeling lives: love. This changed my view on a lot of things, and reminded me of the old saying “it’s what inside that matters.” I was reminded to use this life lesson and keep it in mind with every challenge and event that I face.
After the class regrouped and discussed our answers, I felt that everyone had learned generally the same lessons. This concluded the lesson, with one more slide following the previous. This slide was just a reference to the Aim and also included a link to a youtube video in case the student wanted to do some more enrichment. This is the link to the Crash Course Literature episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDpW1sHrBaU&feature=share&ab_channel=CrashCourse
Our homework for this cycle was to finish completing this lesson (some groups did not finish) and complete the fill-in-the-blanks sonnet as homework. We could write about anything, and I found my inspiration from my favorite TV character: Dwight Shrute from The Office. Dwight is an old-fashioned beet farmer who has a very superior mindset, thinking he is above everyone. He sometimes creates simulations of events to test people and see what their responses would be. When simulating a fire by actually creating smoke, one character, Stanley, had a heart attack and collapsed. Other characters on the show are Andy, Kevin, and Creed. The setting is at a paper company called “Dunder Mifflin”, in which everyone works together. There is a history of the company having insensitive and immature bosses, one of them being another favorite character of mine, Michael Scott, played by Steve Carell.
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