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William
Shakespeare’s birthday is celebrated
worldwide on April 23. It is believed that
he was born on approximately that date in
1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire,
England. Therefore, in honor of the great
bard, we'd like to encourage you to try your
hand at writing a Shakespearean sonnet.
A sonnet is a
poem consisting of 14 lines and varying
rhyme schemes. The Shakespearean sonnet has
its own specific rhyme scheme: abab cdcd
efef gg. The tone and/or subject of the
Shakespearean sonnet usually shifts in the
ninth line. Most of the lines in this sort
of sonnet are written in iambic pentameter.
That is, each line consists of 5 sets of 2
syllables, the second syllable in each set
receiving the emphasis. Here is one of
Shakespeare’s most well-known sonnets,
courtesy of
Place2Be:
That time of
year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the
cold,
Bare ruined choirs where late the sweet
birds sang.
In me thou seest the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west,
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death's second self, that seals up all in
rest.
In me thou seest the glowing of such fire
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie
As the death-bed whereon it must expire,
Consumed with that which it was nourished
by.
This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love
more strong,
To love that well which thou must leave ere
long.
On a notably
less skillful level, here’s another example,
just to prove that anyone, including
me, can write a Shakespearean sonnet! The
lines are numbered and lettered according to
the rhyme scheme, and the emphasized
syllables are typed in bold font:
1 She
cried the day her love for
him had died; A
2 She
wept her tears behind
closed doors at night. B
3 Her
pain was such that it was
hard to hide; A
4 Her
face showed false joy to disguise
her plight. B
5 To
love and to have lost was not
her plan; C
6 Now of
her future she no longer
knew. D
7 To
leave the side of this caring
young man, C
8 For
her, this bold deed was so
hard to do. D
9 With
haste and fear, she packed
her bags and fled E
10 In
search of life in an urbanized
scene. F
11 Of the
pastoral life she had
once led E
12 She
cared not to revisit; she’d grown
keen F
13 To the
city life, which tempted
fate G
14 And
led her to a renewed
mental state. G
Of course,
not all of the lines are in perfect iambic
pentameter; it’s acceptable to stray from
the beaten path from time to time. The main
thing to remember about Shakespearean
sonnets is that although they can be
somewhat difficult to write, they can be a
fun, cathartic method of self-expression
while testing our ability to stay within
poetic confines. |