Objectives Understand the structure of a Shakespearean (Elizabethan) sonnet and write an original sonnet that conveys the lyrics of a popular song in the sonnet structure

Shakespearean Sonnets These were lyrical poems that were often about personal emotional experience, with love being a common subject-matter. The form used often by Shakespeare became highly popular during the rule of Queen Elizabeth I and remains the most common form to this day. It is made up of fourteen lines, organized by three quatrains (groups of four lines) and a couplet (a pair of lines); the quatrains contain a rhyme pattern of ‘abab’ and the couplet is made up of two rhyming lines. Each line in a Shakespearean sonnet contains five two-syllable pairs (called iambs), for a total of ten syllables per line.

Activity Students must select a song that is well known enough in popular culture that students in class might be able to recognize what it is, then write a reimagined version of this song in the format of a Shakespearean sonnet. The complete sonnet must:

• Be fourteen lines in length

• Include ten syllables per line

• Use the following rhyme scheme - abab cdcd efef gg. (Each letter represents one line’s end-rhyme)

Notes and Modifications Students have a great deal of freedom in this activity, despite needing to write within very specific structural rules. Some things to keep in mind.

• The lines of the sonnet do not have to match exactly the order of the original song; combine verses to avoid repeating the lyrics of the chorus

• Words can and should be modified! Think of new ways to express the ideas of the song

• Modification - More accurately reflect the structure of the sonnet by having each quatrain represent a different image, idea, perspective or situation with the couplet connecting them all to the main idea.

• Modification - Use Elizabethan language (see back)

Modification - Distress your final version (see back)