Sonnet

WHAT IS A SONNET?

• A sonnet is a 14 lined lyric-poem with a very renown and specific structure.
• William Shakespeare is credited for making the sonnet well-known.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

• Died April 23rd, 1616
• English poet playwright/actor widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language
• He was the worlds pre/eminent dramatist
• Much of Shakespeare’s work was composed of the 14 lined poems, sonnets.
• One example of his sonnets would be “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 dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,

By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimmed;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade, Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
Nor shall death brag thou wand’rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to Time thou grow’st.
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

DIRECT METAPHOR

• Literary element that shows comparison by comparing on object to another object that symbolizes a trait/aspect.
• Ex. “Lying down to sleep, he was a snow-covered road”

CONNOTATION

• Idea or feeling that a word invokes in addition to its literal/primary reading (pathos)
• Ex. Youthful is often represented with new or young culture the word characterizes and symbolizes vigor and swag.

DENOTATION

• Literal and exact meaning and its dictionary definition
• Ex. Youthful means you are young; early in life.

APPROXIMATE RHYMES

• Sounds are similar, but not exact in sound
• Ex. Mystery/Mastery, Grudge/Love