Sonnet-Blank Verse-Drama

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LITERATURA INGLESA Y NORTEAMERICANA – 3rd Year- Unit 2

What is a Sonnet? /ˈsɒnɪt/

It´s a poem of fourteen lines using any of a number of formal rhyme schemes, in English
typically having ten syllables per line.
Shakespeare’s sonnets are written in a strict poetic form that was very popular during
his lifetime. Broadly speaking, each sonnet engages images and sounds to present an
argument to the reader.
Shakespeare's sonnets are poems that William Shakespeare wrote 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; however there are six
additional sonnets that Shakespeare wrote and included in the plays Romeo and Juliet, Henry
V and Love's Labour's Lost.
Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare
ORIGINAL TEXT MODERN TEXT

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Shall I compare you to a
Thou art more lovely and more summer day? You’re lovelier
temperate. and milder. Rough winds shake
Rough winds do shake the darling buds the pretty buds of May, and
of May, summer doesn’t last nearly long
And summer’s lease hath all too short a enough. Sometimes the sun
date. shines too hot, and often its
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven golden face is darkened by
shines, clouds. And everything
And often is his gold complexion dimmed; beautiful stops being beautiful,
And every fair from fair sometime either by accident or simply in
declines, the course of nature. But your
By chance or nature’s changing course eternal summer will never fade,
untrimmed. nor will you lose possession of
But thy eternal summer shall not fade, your beauty, nor shall death
Nor lose possession of that fair thou brag that you are wandering in
ow’st, the underworld, once you’re
Nor shall death brag thou wand’rest in captured in my eternal verses.
his shade, As long as men are alive and
When in eternal lines to time thou have eyes with which to see,
grow’st. this poem will live and keep you
So long as men can breathe or eyes can alive.
see,
2
So long lives this, and this gives life to

thee.
Summary: Sonnet 18
The speaker opens the poem with a question addressed to the beloved: “Shall I compare thee
to a summer’s day?” The next eleven lines are devoted to such a comparison. In line 2, the
speaker stipulates what mainly differentiates the young man from the summer’s day: he is
“more lovely and more temperate.” Summer’s days tend toward extremes: they are shaken
by “rough winds”; in them, the sun (“the eye of heaven”) often shines “too hot,” or too dim.
And summer is fleeting: its date is too short, and it leads to the withering of autumn, as “every
fair from fair sometime declines.” The final quatrain of the sonnet tells how the beloved
differs from the summer in that respect: his beauty will last forever (“Thy eternal summer
shall not fade...”) and never die. In the couplet, the speaker explains how the beloved’s beauty
will accomplish this feat, and not perish because it is preserved in the poem, which will last
forever; it will live “as long as men can breathe or eyes can see.”
SONNET CHARACTERISTICS
A sonnet is a poem written in a certain format. You can identify a sonnet if the poem has the
following characteristics:
• 14 lines. All sonnets have 14 lines which can be broken down into four sections called
quatrains. The first three quatrains contain four lines each and use an alternating
rhyme scheme. The final quatrain consists of just two lines which both rhyme.
• A strict rhyme scheme. The rhyme scheme of a Shakespearean sonnet is ABAB /
CDCD / EFEF / GG (note the four distinct sections in the rhyme scheme).
• Written in iambic Pentameter. Sonnets are written in iambic pentameter, a poetic
• meter with 10 beats (Syllables) per line made up of alternating unstressed and stressed
syllables.
Blank Verse
Blank verse is a literary device defined as un-rhyming verse written in iambic pentameter. In
poetry and prose, it has a consistent meter with 10 syllables in each line (pentameter); where,
unstressed syllables are followed by stressed ones, five of which are stressed but do
not rhyme. It is also known as “un-rhymed iambic pentameter.”
Features of Blank Verse:
*Blank verse poetry has no fixed number of lines.

*It has a conventional meter that is used for verse drama and long narrative poems.
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*It is often used in descriptive and reflective poems and dramatic monologues — the poems
in which a single character delivers his thoughts in the form of a speech.
*Blank verse can be composed in any kind of meter, such as iamb, trochee, spondee, and
dactyl.
The beginning of drama

Origin of Drama in English Literature
The origin of the drama is deep-rooted in the religious predispositions of mankind. Same is
the case not only with English drama, but with dramas of other nations as well. The ancient
Greek and Roman dramas were mostly concerned with religious ceremonials of people. It
was the
religious elements that resulted in the development of drama. As most of the Bible was
written into Latin, common people could not understand its meanings. That’s why the clergy
tried to find out some new methods of teaching and expounding the teachings of Bible to the
common people. For this purpose, they developed a new method, wherein the stories of the
Gospel were explained through the living pictures. The performers acted out the story in a
dumb show.
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. Considered as a genre

of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been contrasted with the epic and
the lyrical modes ever since Aristotle's Poetics (c. 335 BC)—the earliest work of dramatic
theory.
The term "drama" comes from a Greek word meaning "action". The two masks associated
with drama represent the traditional generic division between comedy and tragedy.
In English the word "play" or "game" was the standard term used to describe drama
until William Shakespeare's time—just as its creator was a "play-maker" rather than a
"dramatist" and the building was a "play-house" rather than a "theatre". The use of "drama"
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in a more narrow sense to designate a specific type of play dates from the modern era.
"Drama" in this sense refers to a play that is neither a comedy nor a tragedy.

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LITERATURA INGLESA Y NORTEAMERICANA – 3rd Year- Unit 2

What is a Sonnet? /ˈsɒnɪt/

Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare

ORIGINAL TEXT MODERN TEXT

So long lives this, and this gives life to

Features of Blank Verse:

*Blank verse poetry has no fixed number of lines.

The beginning of drama

Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. Considered as a genre

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