MYPNA_TE_G12_U3_web.pdf

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essential question: What does it take to survive?

CITE TEXTUAL EVIDENCE

to support your answers.

essential question: How do our attitudes toward the past and future shape our actions?

Analyze Craft and Structure

Development of Theme Each of these poems is a sonnet, a fourteen-line

lyric poem with a single theme. Most traditional sonnets are written in

rhymed iambic pentameter—five groups of two syllables, each with the

accent on the second syllable. There are two main types of sonnets: English,

or Shakespearean; and Italian, or Petrarchan. The sonnets in this collection

are Shakespearean. However, Sonnet 75 by Edmund Spenser represents a

Spenserian sonnet, a variation on the English sonnet.

•   The Shakespearean sonnet consists of three quatrains (four-line

stanzas) and a couplet (two lines), with the rhyme scheme abab cdcd

efef gg.

•   The Spenserian sonnet also contains three quatrains and a couplet.

However, the rhyme scheme is abab bcbc cdcd for the quatrains and ee

for the couplet.

Note that even if a poet uses a sonnet form, he or she may alter elements,

such as the stanza spacing or rhyme scheme.

Traditional sonnet structures allow poets to develop themes with a certain

clear logic. For example, in Shakespearean sonnets, each quatrain explores a

different aspect of a theme, and the couplet serves as a concluding comment

that may offer a surprise or twist on the ideas that came earlier.

Development of tHeme

Sonnet:

First Quatrain

Second Quatrain

Third Quatrain

Couplet

Practice

1. As a group, choose a sonnet from this collection, and analyze how its
   structure helps to develop theme. Consider how each quatrain explores
   a different aspect of the theme and how the couplet offers a surprising
   comment.


2. Notebook Choose another sonnet from this collection. Working on
   your own, analyze how the poet uses the sonnet structure to develop the
   theme. Then, share your analysis with your group.

Poetry Collection 1 381

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Challenge

Sonnet Forms Have students do research to find a sonnet by the

Italian poet Petrarch. Have them compare the structure, rhyme

scheme, and development of themes to one of Shakespeare’s

sonnets in the selection. Have them consider the following questions:

In what ways are the themes similar? How do they differ? Have

students write a few paragraphs comparing the two sonnets and

share them with the members of their group.

FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT

Analyze Craft and Structure

If students are unable to identify the way the

themes are developed, then have them look at

the last six lines of the sonnet and decide if these

lines are all part of a single statement. If the

answer is yes, the poems may have an octave/

sestet format. For Reteach and Practice, see

Analyze Craft and Structure: Development of

Theme (RP).

Analyze Craft and Structure

Development of Theme Encourage students

to think about how the structure of the sonnets

supports the theme. Engage students in a

discussion of the topics in the sonnets—love,

death, immortality. Remind students that these

poems were written in the sixteenth century.

Have them consider if they believe the topics

are outdated. Why or why not? For more

support, see Analyze Craft and Structure:

Development of Theme.

Student responses in chart on student

page will vary based on the poem the

group selects.

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