Shakespearean

Sonnets
Ainsley Felton
Dr. Schrader
CIT 643

The Shakespearean
Sonnet
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Parts

Examples

Practice

This site allows students to better

understand the workings of the
Shakespearean (or English) Sonnet.
You will be guided through a tutorial
on the parts of the sonnet, shown
examples, allowed to practice your
new knowledge, and then be tested
on your understanding by the
creation of your own Shakespearean
Sonnet.

Test

The Shakespearean
Sonnet
Home

Parts

Examples

The Shakespearean Sonnet is

one of the most simple sonnet
structures to understand. It
consists of

quatrains

three

that have
alternating rhyme and a
couplet. These quatrains
usually make an argument in
three stages.

Practice

Test

1. A B A B
2. C D C D
3.E F E F
GG

Each of the quatrains (ABAB,

etc.) develop a specific idea,
but it is one that is closely
related to the other quatrains.

The Shakespearean
Sonnet
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The turn, also know as the

volta

takes place at the final

couplet (G G). The volta sums
up, comments on, or give a
new way of thinking to the
argument posed in the above
three quatrains.

ABAB
CDCD
EFEF
GG

The Shakespearean
Sonnet
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When in disgrace with Fortune and mens eyes, A

I all alone beweep my outcast state,
B
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries, A
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
B
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
C
Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,
D
Desiring this mans art and that mans scope,
C
With what I most enjoy contented least,
D
Yet in these thoughts my self almost despising, E
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
F
(Like to the lark at break of day arising
E
From sullen earth) sings hymns at heavens gate,F
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings,
G
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.G

The Shakespearean
Sonnet
Home

Parts

Examples

Practice

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Word Box:
Shall I compare thee to a summers day?
drag the word to the
Thou art more lovely and more _____________:
correct line
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of _____,
see
And summers lease hath all too short a date: May fade
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven ________, dimmd
And often is his gold complexion __________;
temperate
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
shines growst
By chance, or natures changing course, untrimmd;
But thy eternal summer shall not ________
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owst;
Nor shall Death brag thou wanderst in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou __________,
So long as men can breathe or eyes can _____,
So long lives this, and this give life to thee.

The Shakespearean
Sonnet
Home

Parts

Examples

Practice

Test

Directions: Fill in the blank with the correct rhyme pattern

Shall I compare thee to a summers day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summers lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or natures changing course, untrimmd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owst;
Nor shall Death brag thou wanderst in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growst,
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this give life to thee.

The Shakespearean
Sonnet
Home

Parts

Examples

Directions: Create a Shakespearean

style sonnet. Remember the rhyme
scheme and the relationships
between the lines.

Submit
The program will be looking for a
fourteen line sonnet that includes an
ABAB etc. end rhyme. The program will
also be looking for the end two lines to
be GG. If the requirements are not met,
pop-up suggestion boxes will give
reminders. Students will have three
tries to fix their mistakes before turning
in for a final grade.

Practice

Test