Monday March 8, 2010

REMINDERS: ACT V QUESTIONS DUE TOMORROW (TUESDAY MARCH 9)
SONNET DUE FRIDAY MARCH 12
VOCABULARY 10 DUE MONDAY MARCH 15
HAMLET FINAL WEDNESDAY MARCH 10

The following information has been adapted from Ben Crystal's Shakespeare on Toast.

So what do we really, really truly know about William Shakespeare?

He was born in Stratford-upon-Avon (about 50 miles north of London)
He married Anne Hathaway, a woman at least seven years older than him. They had three children: Susannah, Hamnet and Judith.

A number of really quite wonderful plays have been written under his name.

So we know little about the guy; is that a rare thing?
Consider the legendary blues guitarist and singer Robert Johnson (1911-38). Many consider him to be the king of the Delta blues singers, yet there are only two photos of him in existence, almost nothing is known abut his early life, there are varying stories surrounding his death (the most popular being that his whisky was poisoned by a jealous juke joint owner, who'd caught Johnson flirting with his wife), and there are three different ideas about where he is buried. All we really know is that he wrote 29 songs and a handful of alternative takes that he recorded. But he was good, a legend developed around him that he wasn't able to play the guitar until he went to a crossroads at midnight and the devil tuned his guitar for him. Not happy with the idea that he could naturally be that talented, people developed a magical reason for his talent. Just like Shakespeare.




Shakespeare wrote in early modern English. Only 5% of his words are not in the dictionary today. Shakespere added 1700 to the English language.

Why are there so many references to Greek and Roman gods in his plays? Because Shakespeare spent 20, 000 hours studying Greek and Latin. This was a common education at the time and his audience would have been familiar with the allusions. (Think about what you study and what you might make reference to.)
Language
There are two main type of speech in Shakespeare's plays: prose and verse. Prose is the name for free flowing speech or text; although there are rules that govern it, they are neither as obvious nor as formal as the rules you find in poetry. Sometimes characters think in prose, other times verse.
(1) Poetry is any text that has been written in lines. (2)Verse is poetry that has been given a particular rhythm. Much of Shakespeare's work is written in verse: he made his actors speak a lot in rhythmical poetry, a brill ant device to make kings sound kingly.

The hierarchy of speech in Shakespeare, going from a low emotional intensity and a prosaic language, to high emotion and poetic language is as follows.

Song
↑
Sonnet
↑
Rhyming Verse
↑
Blank Verse (verse that does not rhyme)
↑
Prose


If you're trying to express something that prose won't do justice to, then switch to blank verse. If that isn't forceful enough, moving up to rhyming verse or a sonnet (a fourteen-line rhyming poem) might do it: when Romeo and Juliet first meet and dance together, Shakespeare gives them a sonnet to share, to convey to the audience the height of their emotions and the importance of their first meeting. But if your emotions can't be expressed in any other way, then you just got to sing!

When asking questions about a piece of metrical poetry, there are two things you need to find out: What kind of rhythm does it have? How many beats are there?

Now to iambic pentameter

This tells you the kind of rhythm, and how many beats (or units of rhythm) there should be in the line.

The word meter in pentameter is talking about a rhythmical line of poetry. The other half of the word - penta- is Greek and means five, so we know that in this rhythmical line of poetry there will be five things.

SO...a line of poetry with ten rhythmically ordered syllables is a line of pentameter.

Shall-I/-com-pare/-thee-to/-a-sum/-mer's day?

1 2 3 4 5

the iambic foot

In Greek, an iamb means a weak syllable followed by a strong (de-DUM) A naturally iambic word is com-PARE.)

If an iambic foot sounds like de-DUM, then five iambs together would look like this:
de-DUM de-DUM de-DUM de-DUM de-DUM

Why iambic pentameter?

The iambic foot imitates our natural heartbeat.

The pentameter is a natural breath line.

YOUR ASSIGNMENT: writing your own sonnet.

Begin by reading one of Shakespeare's

When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes a
I all alone beweep my outcast state, b
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries, a
And look upon myself, and curse my fate, b
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope, c
Featur’d like him, like him with friends possess’d, d
Desiring this man’s art, and that man’s scope, c
With what I most enjoy contented least; d
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising, e
Haply I think on thee,—and then my state, f
Like to the lark at break of day arising e
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven’s gate; f
For thy sweet love remember’d such wealth brings g
That then I scorn to change my state with kings. g


From the beginning, the theme of most sonnets was love–romantic, passionate, or unrequited love. William Shakespeare wrote many sonnets. Take a close look at his twenty-seventh sonnet. Look at the end rhymes and the structure of the poem. Notice that the first word in each line is capitalized. Then study the conflict and the final thoughts. (Note, as well, the rhyme scheme and the volta, or "turn"; the turn is an essential element of the sonnet form, perhaps the essential element. It is at the volta that the second idea is introduced.



The rhyme scheme then for an English sonnet, in contrast to an Italian-also known as Petrachan sonnet- or a Spenserian sonnet, is ababcdcdefefgg. This is the pattern you will use in your sonnet. Shakespeare's conclusion was on observation of the effect love had on him. It kept him awake even when he was desperate for sleep. Many poets use this theme in their sonnets, describing the agony of being separated from their true love.

Now you will write your own sonnet. It may be on any topic, not simply love. However, you must have 14 lines and follow the correct rhyme scheme. (See above). Please type up your sonnet and mark the rhyme pattern at the end. Put an asterisk at the volta. This is due on FRIDAY MARCH 12.