#Sonnet examples by students full

I urge you to pick up a copy of the sonnets and read them all!В If you have a personal favourite let us know in a comment belowвЂ¦ Top 25 Shakespeare SonnetsДЇlatter the mountain tops with sovereign eye, Many of these you will be familiar with (IвЂ™m sure at least the iconic Sonnet 18), and some you will not. I think this list should be a good starting point if you want to learn more about ShakespeareвЂ™s sonnets.

#Sonnet examples by students full

Like much of ShakespeareвЂ™s work, a cursory glance may lead one to believe the words are simply light, easy 14 lines of verses, but in fact they are full of pain and longing and remain some of ShakespeareвЂ™s most personal writings. These sonnets investigate love, loss, deception, time, youth and are certainly not simple love poems. Shakespeare has 154 sonnets, so to pick a top 25 has not been easy, but here we are!

My goal here is more to help actors or anyone interested in learning more about ShakespeareвЂ™s sonnets, be guided towards some of his most exceptional work. Poetry is a completely subjective and deeply personal thing, so you may entirely disagree, in fact I hope you do. These are for me the 25 most intriguing sonnets. As is often the case with these вЂbest ofвЂ™ lists, the audacious title is backed by little more than a one manвЂ™s love for Shakespeare. I think that this activity sets the right now for the beginning of the play, but it's also fun.Here is a list of my favourite Shakespeare sonnets. I expect that they will have to consider flipping the order of words in order to fit the perimeters (L.9-10.3).

They will have to think about syllables and rhyming words, imagery (W.9-10.3d) and description (W.9-10.3b). Students are writing sonnets because it's the best way for them to understand how hard it is to write in iambic pentameter. Also, this arrangement seems to be a good compromise: the students get to work with someone they want to work with, and I am happy knowing that everyone will be included during the share out time. This method includes everyone and offers a personal touch. I have arranged it this way because they need to start with a topic (otherwise they use half their time deciding what to write about), but it's boring if they all write about the same thing. It certainly doesn't have to be a love sonnet, but it does need to be complementary. Students will pair up and will write one sonnet about the pair to their left (W.9-10.3). In 20 minutes, we can read to understand the poem itself and the genre. None of the words in this poem are completely foreign to students- 'impediments' may be the hardest word- but it will still take some time, working sentence by sentence, to clarify meaning, using the context and imagery as a guide. Sonnet 116 is a great one to use as an example because it's approachable. Once we have worked our way through the poem, we will discuss what Shakespeare is trying to say overall about love and it's timeless qualities (RL.9-10.2). We can keep this in mind during the next activity, during which time, we will write sonnets, but it also important to note that Shakespeare gets to break the rules and make new ones. It's worth noting that sometimes Shakespeare forces a rhyme, or because of accent, the lines may not seem to rhyme, such as with the rhyming couplet in Sonnet 116' 'proved' and 'loved' seem to be stretch (RL.9-10.4). We will briefly analyze the rhyme scheme and iambic pentameter. And it will help students annotate: they will start by writing a 'translation' or objective summary of each line (RL.9-10.2) that they understand, and then will add notes based on our conversations about imagery, rhyme scheme, and meter. Reciting the lines with appropriate tone and inflection aids understanding. Then we will read sentence by sentence, working through the meaning. The words seem impossible upon first read, but often become a bit clearer the second time around. I like to read through poems at least twice before talking about them because, for teenagers, they are a foreign entity. We will read through it twice aloud before annotating it two different students will read. Every student will receive a copy of Sonnet 116, so that they can annotate it.