Structure of a Shakespearian Sonnet

1
Structure of a Shakespearian Sonnet
2
Criteria for a Sonnet

• Iambic Pentameter
• 3 quatrains
• 1 couplet
• Rhyme scheme
• Abab
• Cdcd
• Efef
• gg

3
Vocabulary of Iambic Pentameter

• Scansion The analysis of verse in terms of
  meter
• Iamb The rhythmic pattern where the syllables
  are unstressed followed by a stressed syllable
• Foot The unit of measurement associated with
  one cycle of rhythmic patterns
• Meter A regular pattern of syllables in a line
  of poetry

4
Feel the Rhythm of Iambic Pentameter

• 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 to short a date

5
Quatrains

• 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 natures changing course untrimmed

6
Rhyme Scheme

• 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,

7
Couplet

• So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
• So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.