February 20, 2014

Shakespearean Sonnets&

Iambic Pentameter VS

Blank Verse Poetry

February 20, 2014

Rhyme Scheme

A rhyme scheme is a regular pattern of rhyme, one that is consistent throughout the extent of the poem.  Poems that rhyme without any regular pattern can be called rhyming poems, but  only those poems with an unvarying pattern to their rhymes can be said to have a rhyme scheme.

The following short poem illustrates the labeling of a rhyme scheme:

                  There once was a big brown cat      a                  That liked to eat a lot of mice.       b                  He got all round and fat             a                  Because they tasted so nice.         b

SOOOO......every line labeled "a" will end with a word that rhymes with "cat" and "fat." Every "b" line will end with a word that rhymes with "mice" and "nice."

February 20, 2014

Let's Practice with Mother Goose!

"Mary Had a Little Lamb"

Mary had a little lamb. ____It's fleece was white as snow. ____And everywhere that Mary went ____The lamb was sure to go. ____

It followed her to school one day, ____Which was against the rule. ____It made the children laugh and play ____To see a lamb at school. ____

February 20, 2014

"Little Miss Muffet"

Little Miss Muffet ____Sat on a tuffet, ____Eating her curds and whey. ____Along came a spider ____Who sat down beside her ____And frightened Miss Muffet away. ____

"There Was an Old Lady Who Lived in a Shoe"

There was an old lady who lived in a shoe. ____She had so many children, she didn't know what to do. ____She gave them some broth without any bread; ____She whipped them all soundly and sent them to bed. ____

February 20, 2014

Shakespeare's sonnets have a rhyme scheme of their own. Let's look at a couple and see if we can figure out the unique pattern:

Romeo and Juliet Prologue:

Two households, both alike in dignity, ____In fair Verona, where we lay our scene, ____From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, ____Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. ____From forth the fatal loins of these two foes ____A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life; ____Whole misadventured piteous overthrows ____Do with their death bury their parents' strife. ____The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love, ____And the continuance of their parents' rage, ____Which, but their children's end, nought could remove, ____Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage; ____The which if you with patient ears attend, ____What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend. ____

February 20, 2014

Romeo and Juliet Act 1, Scene IV

ROMEO [To JULIET] If I profane with my unworthiest hand ____This holy shrine, the gentle fine is this: ____My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand ____To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss. ____

JULIET Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much, ____Which mannerly devotion shows in this; ____For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch, ____And palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss. ____

ROMEO Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too? ____

JULIET Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer. ____

ROMEO O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do; ____They pray, grant thou, lest faith turn to despair. ____

JULIET Saints do not move, though grant for prayers' sake. ____

ROMEO Then move not, while my prayer's effect I take. ____

February 20, 2014

As We Can See....

The Shakespearean Sonnet consists of 14-lines that are divided into three four-line sections (each called a quatrain), and a concluding section of just two lines: a rhyming or closed couplet.

Each quatrain has an alternating rhyme scheme: abab, cdcd, and efef. The final rhyming couplet has the rhyme scheme: gg. An example showing just the last end-rhymed words would be:

... desire (a) ... rough (b) ... fire (a)

... tough (b)

... drive (c) ... mast (d) ... hive (c) ... cast (d)

... cart (e) ... disc (f) ... dart (e) ... brisk (f)

... maze (g) ... gaze (g)

February 20, 2014

How to Actors Memorize Shakespeare?

Shakespeare's plays are actually easy to memorize because they follow a rhythm.

Often, the rhythm he used was called iambic pentameter. "iambus" = pair of syllables

"penta" = 5 (think math!)

What does the rhythm sound like? Let's see!

Activity:10 students come to the front of the room.Count off by 2's.All 1's will say: "I" softlyAll 2's will say: "AM!" loudlyStarting at one end of the line, students takes turns saying their line.

Yay! This is iambic pentameter!

February 20, 2014

Iambic Pentameter has:

* Ten syllables in each line * Five pairs of alternating unstressed and stressed syllables * The rhythm in each line sounds like: ba-BUM / ba-BUM / ba-BUM / ba-BUM / ba-BUM

Most of Shakespeare’s famous quotations fit into this rhythm. For example:

If mu- / -sic be / the food / of love, / play on Is this / a dag- / -ger I / see be- / fore me?

Each pair of syllables is called an iambus. You’ll notice that each iambus is made up of one unstressed and one stressed beat (ba-BUM).

In his plays, Shakespeare didn’t always stick to ten syllables. He often played around with iambic pentameter to give color and feeling to his character’s speeches. This is the key to understanding Shakespeare's language..

February 20, 2014

Blank Verse

Blank Verse refers to unrhymed iambic pentameter. Blank verse resembles prose (more like everyday language) in that the final words of the lines do not rhyme in any regular pattern (although an occasional rhyming couplet may be found).

Unlike prose, there is a recognizable meter: most lines are in iambic pentameter. The difference is that the lines do not follow any type of rhyme pattern.

Let's look at an example from one of Shakespeare's plays....

February 20, 2014

All the World's a Stage from As You Like It

All the world's a stage,And all the men and women merely players;They have their exits and their entrances,And one man in his time plays many parts,His acts being seven ages. At first, the infant,Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchelAnd shining morning face, creeping like snailUnwillingly to school. And then the lover,Sighing like furnace, with a woeful balladMade to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel,Seeking the bubble reputationEven in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice,In fair round belly with good capon lined,With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,Full of wise saws and modern instances;And so he plays his part. The sixth age shiftsInto the lean and slippered pantaloon,With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wideFor his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,Turning again toward childish treble, pipesAnd whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,That ends this strange eventful history,Is second childishness and mere oblivion,Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

Jaques All the worlds a stage.mov

February 20, 2014

Now It's Your Turn!

Objectives:to write a sonnet (love is the most common sonnet subject)to write towards a clinching final coupletto work with rhyme

Imagine someone or something you feel very strongly about. Brainstorm as many ideas and images around this person or thing as you can on the space given to you in your packet.

Using the sonnet rhyme scheme, write your own sonnet. Create a rough draft in your packet. I've given you the rhyme scheme, so make sure you follow it!

For homework, complete a final draft in INK or TYPED on a sheet on unlined paper.