Easing into Shakespeare’s Sonnets via 20th Century SonnetsLesson #1

Texts CoveredA 20th century sonnet of the teacher’s choosing. “Anthem for Doomed Youth” by Wilfred Own is used here as a model. INSERT POEM OR LINK?

What You NeedCopies of the sonnet, double spaced, so that students can mark them up.If available, photos of soldiers in World War I, Iraq or Afghanistan; photo of Wilfred Owen. LINK?

What’s On for Today and WhyModern sonnets look more accessible than Shakespeare’s to most students. Focusing on the techniques used by more recent poets prepares the way for reading Shakespeare’s sonnets.

A lesson on iambic pentameter could precede this one. (See “I am a Pirate with a Wooden Leg”: Stomping Iambic Pentameter” or “Living Iambic Pentameter” on the Folger YouTube channel.)

What To Do1. Journals. Free-write for a few minutes on the kinds of emotions a war evokes in people at home. Are they sad, fearful for the soldiers at the front, angry at those who sent them there? Write along with the students. Discuss the responses. Possibly, show newspaper photos of soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.

2. Pass out photocopies of “Anthem for Doomed Youth” double-spaced. Ask students to “read around” – each person reads one line. (The text of this poem as well as most of the others, is available on the Representative Poetry Online site.) OMIT? Link instead?

Ask students to circle any words which are unfamiliar. Some key words which will need definition are passing-bells, orisons, shire, pallor, pall. Collectively, students may be able to come up with any necessary definitions; if not, they can go to the dictionary. Discuss the connotations of these and any other words that have been circled.

3. Students read the poem aloud, chorally. Discuss the theme of the poem.What are the two settings invoked? What is the tone of the poem and the attitude of the poet towards war? Tell students that Owen served in World War I and was killed shortly before the Armistice. If available, show photos of soldiers in WWI.

4. One or two students read the first line of the poem, which poses a question. Then pairs of students, one for each passage ending with a period, read the answers of the next seven lines. Repeat the pattern for the sestet. Students should stand in front of

1

the class, or at their desks, and should try to make eye contact with someone as they read.

5. Collectively, paraphrase the poem. Write reactions to the poem for 2-3 minutes and share responses. How does the poet answer the questions he puts forth?

6. As time permits, discuss imagery, such as the religious imagery, and sound effects, like the onomatopoeia of the stuttering rifles rapid rattle, and their effects.

7. Ask students if they recognize the form of the poem. Discuss the characteristics of a sonnet (see the section on “Sonnet Structure” in “An Introduction to Teaching Shakespeare’s Sonnets.”) Go over the rhyme scheme and point out its variations from either of the basic patterns, Italian and English. Why might Owen have chosen a sonnet for this subject? Why might he have left a space between octave and sestet?

8. One or two people, preferably volunteers, read the whole sonnet aloud.

9. Journals. Students write for 2-3 minutes describing their own feelings about the deaths of young soldiers. This is not to share now, but to save as possible subject matter for a sonnet of their own later in the unit.

How did it go? Did students respond to the poem? Were they moved by it? Did they participate actively in the choral reading and in the writing? In discussions, did they demonstrate an understanding of the basic sonnet form and how it can vary?

Homework for Next Lesson: Bring in the lyrics and/or music for a pop song about the pain of love – losing a boyfriend/girlfriend or longing after someone you can’t have

Other modern sonnets as alternatives: “Pity Me Not” or “What Lips my Lips Have Kissed” by Edna St. Vincent Millay; “The Oven Bird” by Robert Frost; “If We Must Die” by Claude McKay; Robert Hayden, “Those Winter Sundays” (Levin 219); Howard Nemerov, “A Primer for the Daily Round” (Levin pg 234); Seamus Heaney, “The Forge, “ (Levin 271); Benjamin Alire Saenz, “To The Desert” (POL pg. 109)

Note to Gigi – after Bob looks at this, we can standardize the format and I will provide source for Millay et al. I don’t think chronology is important here, maybe just list them alphabetically

2

Petrarch, Father of the SonnetLesson #2

Texts CoveredPetrarch’s Sonnet CIV in English translation (“I find no peace…”.)LINKWhat You NeedA copy of the text for each student.

What’s on for Today and WhyThis lesson moves back to before Shakespeare, and offers an introduction to Petrarch and the influence he had on sonnet writing in the 16th and 17th centuries and beyond. It provides a context for understanding how Shakespeare both made use of “Petrarchan conventions” and undercut them, and how modern writers continue to refer to and riff off of Petrarch.

What To Do1. Students bring in the lyrics to songs about the pain of love and share them. Share some musical renditions if you have the time. Consider together why this is still such a popular subject.

2. Briefly explain who Petrarch and Laura were and list some characteristic themes of the Petrarchan sonnet: the beloved is ideally beautiful, unattainable, cruel in rejecting the poet’s love; love is a torment, the lover suffers from extremes of feeling; the God of Love is harsh/ love is a religion, the eyes are the window to the soul; the poem will immortalize the beloved, etc. (See Introduction.)

3. Go over the typical relationship of octave and sestet: the octave introduces a situation/ poses a question/ presents a problem and the sestet comments on the situation/ answers the question/ suggests a solution. Between octave and sestet, there is a “volta” – literally, a turn -- a shift in tone, often subtle.

4. To illustrate, pass out an English language translation into iambic pentameter of one of Petrarch’s many sonnets; CIV, translated by Thomas Bergin, begins “I find no peace and bear no arms for war.” (This could be a link and the text omitted.)

I find no peace and bear no arms for war, I fear, I hope; I burn yet shake with chill; I fly the Heavens, huddle to earth’s floor, Embrace the world, yet all I grasp is nil. Love opens not nor shuts my prison’s door Nor claims me his nor leaves me to my will; He slays me not yet holds me evermore, Would have me lifeless yet bound to my ill. Eyeless I see and tongueless I protest. And long to perish while I succor seek; Myself I hate and would another woo.

3

I feed on grief, I laugh with sob-racked breast And death and life alike to me are bleak: My lady, thus I am because of you.

5. Divide the class into two groups, one for octave, one for the sestet. Give them 10 minutes to prepare a dramatic reading with exaggerated movements and gestures. Octave group is on one side of the room, sestet is on the other. Students can speak chorally, or break up the lines and parcel them out.

6. The presentations will be funny. Mention that the object is not to ridicule Petrarch, a great artist, but to demonstrate the extremes of feeling he articulated and which served as models for later poets.

7. Ask students to write out the sonnet’s rhyme scheme. Discuss briefly.

8. Journals: write reactions to Petrarch and then share responses.

9. Time permitting, role-play Petrarch and Laura in contemporary idiom.

How Did It Go?Did students connect the sentiments of the songs they brought in with Petrarch? Do they understand the Petrarchan conventions and how they continue to influence writing today?Did they reach a more solid understanding of a sonnet’s characteristic shape? Do they appear interested in the sonnet as a formalized way of expressing feeling?

Homework for Next Lesson: Pass out photocopies, double-spaced, of Michael Drayton’s “The Parting” to be discussed tomorrow. (Link instead of text here? LFN could find no link accessible to public.)

Since there’s no help, come let us kiss and part –Nay, I have done, you get no more of me;And I am glad, yea, glad with all my heart,That I so cleanly I myself can free.Shake hands forever, cancel all our vows,And when we meet at any time again,Be it not seen in either of our browsThat we one jot of former love retain.Now at the last gasp of Love’s latest breath,When, his pulse failing, Passion speechless lies, When Faith is kneeling by his bed of death,And Innocence is closing up his eyes –Now if thou wouldst, when all have given him over,From death to life thou might’st him yet recover.

4

The English Sonnet: Michael DraytonLesson #3

Texts Covered Michael Drayton’s (1563-1631) sonnet “The Parting”.

What You NeedCopies of the poem. You need a dictionary, and an Ipod to play “Breaking up is hard to do” or a more contemporary equivalent.

What’s On for Today and WhyThis lesson presents an examination of a sonnet by one of Shakespeare’s contemporaries indebted to Petrarch, emphasizing the distress and turmoil of love. This sonnet and the sonnet of Spenser’s assigned for the next day, in which he idealizes his beloved in a “blazon,” are examples of the literary context in which Shakespeare was writing.

What To Do

1. Play the song “Breaking up is hard to do” or a more familiar equivalent.(Google will give you multiple sites; or students can provide the song on their Ipods.)

2. Journals. Free writing, 2-3 minutes on the subject of breaking up. If you have time, students can share their work aloud. This could prove to be quite popular.

3. Students get out the copies of Michael Drayton’s “Since there’s no help” that they were given yesterday.

4. Elicit the rhyme scheme and compare it to that of Petrarch’s sonnet from Day 2; identify Drayton’s as an “English” sonnet, later called “Shakespearean”, which is less tightly knit. (See description of an English sonnet in the Introduction.)

5. Break up the class into two groups: group A collectively reads the octave, group

B reads the sestet.

6. What’s happening in this sonnet? Who’s speaking? Ask for line-by-line paraphrases of the first 8 lines.

7. Dramatize the last 6 lines. Assign roles to: Love, Passion, Faith, Innocence, the departing lover, the anguished dumpee. Students mime the action while the others read the lines aloud, in a circle around the dying Love.

5

8. Journals. Write 2-3 minutes about the sonnet’s ending. What are the chances that the departing lover will change his/her mind resuscitate Love at the last minute? Share the responses.

9. Discuss the intensity of feeling in this compared to that in Petrarch’s sonnet.

10. Annnounce: Tomorrow, Shakespeare at Last.

How Did It Go?Were students engaged in what they were doing? Do they show a deeper understanding of how a literary tradition is inherited and re-worked? Are they more secure in their definition of “sonnet”?

Homework for Next Lesson: Journal writing: list the characteristics of an ideal beauty, male or female, for you. Private writing; not to share. Hand out copies of Spenser’s sonnet to read at home. (Or you can project this on a screen for Lesson 4.)

(Note to Gigi: LFN finds no link to this particular sonnet. )Ye tradeful merchants, that with weary toilDo seek most precious things to make your gain;And both the Indias of their treasure spoil;What needeth you to seek so far in vain?For lo, my love doth in herself containAll this world’s riches that may far be found:If sapphires, lo, her eyes be sapphires plain;If rubies, lo, her lips be rubies sound;If pearls, her teeth be pearls, both pure and round;If ivory, her forehead ivory ween;If gold, her locks are finest gold on ground;If silver, her fair hands are silver sheen: But that which fairest is, but few behold, Her mind adorned with virtues manifold

Spenser, Shakespeare, and the “Blazon”Lesson #4

Texts Covered Spenser’s sonnet XV from Amoretti and Shakespeare’s Sonnets 130. Note: the students in the Folger’s “Shakespeare’s Sisters” seminar enjoy comparing These two sonnets.

6

What You NeedCopies of Spenser’s sonnet XV or overhead projector. The New Folger edition of Shakespeare’s sonnets, edited by Barbara Mowat and Paul Werstine, or copies of Sonnet 130. A dictionary.

What’s On for Today and WhyStudents will read and respond to a Shakespearean sonnet which is in the Petrarchan tradition but mocks its conventions. This lesson should begin to give them an inking about what all the Shakespeare fuss is about.

What To Do

1. Pass out copies or project on a screen the text of no. XV from Spenser’s sonnet sequence, Amoretti. Explain that it was fashionable in the late 16th-early 17th centuries to write linked sonnets addressed to a beloved.( Amoretti contains 88 sonnets. )

2. Ask the class to “read around” Spenser’s sonnet, stop to stop (count colons and semi-colons as “stops” in this case.)

3. Someone looks up “blazon” and chooses the meaning most appropriate to describe this sonnet. Paraphrase, collectively, the first four lines. Define archaic words (ween) or forms (needeth, tradeful, spoil.)

4. Discuss the poet’s attitude towards his beloved and the implications of the images he uses to describe her beauty.. 5. “Read around” the text of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130, each person reading a line. Students identify and define unfamiliar words and usage. (Refer to the notes in the Folger edition.)

. 6. Journals: what’s going on in this poem? How does the poet feel about his mistress? How can you tell? Share aloud the responses.

7. Discuss the tone of Shakespeare’s sonnet. How does it compare to Spenser’s? Which words in 130 lend humor to the whole? 8. Compare the diction in the two sonnets.

9. In both sonnets, the last two lines oblige us to re-think what came before. How convincing are these final lines, in each case?

How Did It Go?

7

Did students appreciate the humor and wit in Shakespeare’s sonnet? Did they enjoy discussing and comparing the two sonnets? Did they demonstrate an understanding of how Shakespeare shows off his own familiarity with sonnet conventions and, at the same time, upends them?

Homework for Lesson 4a

Read the text of Sonnet 138 (“When my love swears that she is full of truth.”) In Journals, write about the importance of trust in any relationship.

Lesson 4aShakespeare’s Sonnet 138

Note: This is a short lesson which can either start off Lesson 5, which usually takes 20-25 minutes, or, time permitting, included at the end of Lesson 4.

Text coveredShakespeare’s Sonnet 138.

What’s On for Today and WhySonnet 138, accessible and witty, is usually a favorite with students as it is about love, trust, male-female relationships, and (obliquely) sex.

What You NeedCopies of the sonnet. The teacher should have a copy of the New Folger Shakespeare’s Sonnets even if the students do not.

What To Do

1. Students read the text aloud in four groups, one for each quatrain and one for the couplet. This emphasizes the structure of the poem, which, unlike Sonnet 130 read the day before, has a clear volta between octave and sestet.

2. Ask what is going on in the poem. To whom do you imagine the poet speaking? How would you describe the relationship between the two lovers?

3. Make sure students understand the sense of “untutored,” “vainly.” “simply,” “credit,” “unjust” – all words that we still use but which have other meanings

now. They should have no trouble getting the pun in the couplet. 4. Discuss: How does the wit and humor in this sonnet compared to that in Sonnet

130? Are there differences in tone? In what ways can both be said to be “anti- Petrarchan”?

8

5. (Optional) Share journal writings on the importance of trust in a relationship.

6. Journal. Sonnets 127-152 are often referred to as the “Dark Lady” sonnets. Do you think that Sonnets 130 and 138 are about the same woman? Why or why . not? Share these responses.

How Did It Go?

Did students enjoy reading and discussing the poem? Are they enthusiastic about Shakespeare? Do they express interest in reading more sonnets?

Juliet v. LauraLesson 5

Texts CoveredRomeo and Juliet, Act 1, scene 5, 105-123 in New Folger edition.

What You NeedIdeally, the lines indicated above, typed and double spaced, without notes, to hand out as “scripts” free of the distraction of notes. Or, you can work directly from the text in the book.

What’s On For Today and Why

Romeo and Juliet contains three sonnets: the Prologue, the shared sonnet at the ball scene in 1.5, and one at the start of Act 2. The first and third of these are essentially narratives. The second, which is shared by Romeo and Juliet, is interesting to look at in the light of some knowledge of Petrarchan conventions; students can appreciate the way Shakespeare both draws on these conventions and rejects them.

What To Do

1. Pass out the scripts. Divide the groups into “Romeo” and “Juliet.” Assign the Nurse’s line to one person.

2. Read the 18 lines chorally. “Nurse” reads line 19. Ask students to circle unfamiliar words. (“Palmer” is key.)

3. Ask students if they recognize the form used. What’s unusual about it? Note that in lines 15-18, Romeo and Juliet appear to be starting a second sonnet,

perhaps even a sonnet sequence, but are interrupted by the Nurse.

4. Discuss the meanings of any words that students have circled.

9

5. Read the lines again, chorally.

6. Elicit the ways in which this passage is “Petrarchan.” (Religious imagery, love at first sight, the lady approached as holy, the lover begging for her favor, a threat of despair, and elaborate metaphors, among others.)

7. Assign two “actors” to be Romeo and Juliet, ideally volunteers, who will act out the lines silently as the rest of the class reads them. (Note: there is always a problem about the kiss, and much giggling. Tell them it is fine to just fake it. There will still be giggling.)

8. Ask the rest of the class to act as directors and suggest ways Romeo and Juliet might move or gesture at key points. There will be a lot of stopping and starting.

9. The choral readers, the Nurse, and the silent actors go through the passage one more time.

10. Romeo and Juliet return to their seats. Ask students what they noticed about Juliet’s behavior. In what way is it “anti-Petrarchan”? Students will have probably picked up that Juliet is neither passive nor inaccessible but rather a bold and witty heroine.

11. Discuss: Is there evidence of the sharp Shakespearean wit found in Sonnets 130 and 130 in Juliet’s language?

12. Journal. Has Juliet suddenly, to your knowledge, become a more significant rebel than before?

How Did It Go?

Did students see that Juliet participates actively in the sonnet, rather than remaining silently on a pedestal, like Laura? Did they understand that, though obviously familiar with the Petrarchan language and the conventional expectations of a love-object, Juliet appears eager to enter a relationship in which she expects to be an equal, giving as good as she gets?

“Close Reading” of a SonnetLesson #6

Texts covered Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18, or 29, or 65

10

Note: This could be replaced by “Performing Sonnets” by Simon Rodberg and Caleen Sinnette Jennings on memorizing a sonnet through performance, which is “close reading on your feet” in Peggy O’Brien’s words.

What You NeedScreen or blank wall, an overhead projector and a sonnet on a transparency, or on Power Point. (Or links to student laptops.) You can also use copies of the sonnet, double spaced, and pieces of blank paper to hide the lines not yet discussed. A dictionary. The New Folger edition of Shakespeare’s Sonnet.

What’s On For Today, and WhyShowing one line at a time of a sonnet, or any poem, demonstrates the way it accumulates meaning and prevents students from leaping ahead to the couplet to decide the “lesson” of the sonnet. This method allows students to focus more on diction and to consider the multiple connotations of individual words.

What to Do

1. With an overhead projector, or Power Point, show only the first line of the sonnet on a screen. Ask what the students think the subject of the sonnet will be. If there are unfamiliar words, define them and ask for secondary meanings which might enrich the texture of the poem. For example, in Sonnet 29, “fortune” can mean both “wealth” and “random luck,” and suggest the Goddess Fortuna with her wheel.

2. Add the second line and ask how this second line enlarges the meaning of the first one. Go slowly, discussing each important word.

3. Continue the process, pausing at each period or semicolon to paraphrase what the sonnet has said, literally, so far.

4. In all three of the suggested sonnets, there is a clear volta (shift) between lines 8 and 9. At the end of the octave, ask students to write for 2-3 minutes on what conclusion the poet will reach.

5. Release the last six lines, one by one, calling for connotations and associations with individual words, not just denotations.

6. When the whole sonnet is visible, students read it chorally.

7. Ask for a paraphrase of the whole poem. Discuss the process by which Shakespeare arrives at the idea expressed in the couplet.

8. Journals. Write for 2-3 minutes about a personal meaning the sonnet has for you and how reading it one line at a time affected your understanding of the whole.

11

How did it go? Did students participate actively in the close reading? Did they appear to understand the sonnet’s theme and literal meaning? Did they understand the importance of each word is building the structure? Did they take their thinking to a higher level of abstraction? Did they respond emotionally as well as intellectually? Did they find a personal connection to the sonnet?

Writing a Group SonnetLesson #7

Text CoveredNone: this lesson allows students to work together to write an original sonnet.

What You NeedChalkboard or sheets of newsprint on an easel, chalk or markers.

What’s On for Today and Why

Composing a sonnet as a group can be an effective way of reinforcing understanding of the sonnet’s pattern and pave the way for the writing of individual sonnets. Starting with a rhyme scheme and working “backwards,” adjusting the lines to make sense, often yields surprisingly coherent results. This will be noisy and fun.

What to Do

1. Ask someone to write the rhyme scheme of the Shakespearean sonnet on the Board, vertically: abab cdcd efef gg. Number the lines.

2. Explain the process by which the students will create a sonnet. First, come up with two pairs of rhyming one-syllable words for the first quatrain (day/dark/ pray/spark, for example) and place them at the ends of the first 4 lines.

3. The class collectively composes iambic pentameter lines to precede each of the end rhymes. One person is the scribe who writes the lines on the board. The lines may be nonsense at first, but then the group tweaks them into making sense.( In the process, the end rhymes may be altered.)

4. The same process is applied to the second quatrain, the third, and the couplet.

5. Once there are 14 lines on the board, ask students to collectively edit the result.

6. Choral reading of the group sonnet.

12

7. Journals: Students start writing individual sonnets of their own, drawing on their journal writing of the previous days for subject matter or theme.

How did it go? Did the class cooperate in the exercise? Did students demonstrate an understanding of iambic pentameter and of the rhyme scheme of the Shakespearean sonnet? Do they understand the internal structure of a sonnet and that that sonnets can be written about a wide range of topics? Were they able to compose a poem that hangs together and which doesn’t rely on antiquated language?

Homework for Next Lesson

One original sonnet by each student is due for the next lesson. They might wish to use the rhyme scheme of one of the sonnets you have studied to date. This will give them a framework and may seem a bit less daunting than just asking them to give it a go. Or they might use a phrase from one of Shakespeare’s sonnets as a first line, to jump start a sonnet. The sonnets can be shared at whatever time in the future seems best. Note to Gigi: since we are suggesting they write sonnets at the end of lesson 9, should we skip this homework?

One idea for all these additional poems & exercises we can’t find room for would be to suggest additional opportunities to augment (as we have suggested ways to shorten) the sequence.

Yes, good idea. Should these be in a list, or “embedded”? Probably in a list.

Sonnet Performance Festival: Shakespeare’s Sonnets as ScriptsLesson # 8

Texts Covered

4-5 of the following Shakespearean sonnets: 23, 29, 42, 57, 66, 71, 138, 144, 147.(Other choices are, of course, possible, but these are fairly accessible and lend themselves to dramatic performances.)

What You NeedCopies of the 4-5 sonnets you have chosen for the class, preferably on separate paper, without notes.A copy of the New Folger edition of the Sonnets and a dictionary, for reference.Optional but very desirable: a bag of props – hats, scarves, bell, clock, wooden daggerstethoscope, kazoo, harmonica, and/or anything you think would add visual interest to the performance.

What’s On for Today, and Why

13

Breaking a sonnet down into parts and presenting it dramatically can help students to really listen to the language, to hear different “voices” in the poem. Today, small groups of 3-5 students work together to turn the sonnet into a “script” in which lines and/or phrases are assigned to different actors, perhaps designating certain lines to be spoken chorally. Figuring out the texts with a minimum of help from the teacher is an empowering exercise.

What To Do

1. Break up the class into groups of 3-5 students.

2. Give each group a copy of the sonnet they will prepare.

3. Explain that they are to find a “story” that the sonnet tells and dramatize it, assigning different lines to different actors. Emphasize that everyone must speak, even if only on a chorally read line.

4. Show students the bag of props and ration them – only 2 or 3 to a group.

5. Tell them that they may use the copy of the New Folger edition or a dictionary to ask for help in understanding a word or a passage.

6. Give each group a short list of questions to consider, for example: Who are you? To whom are you speaking? Where are you? What’s happening? What’s the tone of the poem? How can you physicalize metaphor, simile, personification? Where might you pause? Is there a key line?

7. “Rehearsal” time should be 15-20 minutes. While one could spend much longer, students focus better when time is limited.

8. Ask them to assign one person to introduce the sonnet by name and say “curtain” to indicate the start of the performance and the end. Actors should plan on taking a group bow during the applause.

9. You “float” from group to group making sure kids stay on task and offering help when it is requested.

10. When you have ascertained that everyone is more or less ready, designate a space that is the “stage” and call forth the acting companies, one by one, to perform. Ask the audience members to think of questions they might like to ask.

11. After all the performances, open up the floor to questions.

12. Journals: Write about the experience of performing a sonnet as part of a group. What did you learn about the sonnet? What questions do you still have?

14

How Did It Go?

Did students work cooperatively together to produce a playlet of the sonnet? Did their performances demonstrate a basic understanding of the sonnet’s content? Were they imaginative? Did they respond intelligently to the questions of others? Were audience members attentive and respectful of the performances of others?

Homework (not sure about this) With a partner, work on a memorized dramatization of a sonnet of your choice to present to the class the following week.

Shakespeare’s Sisters & Other Modern SonnetsLesson #9

Note to Gigi – I really like this plan!

Texts CoveredProvide the class with copies of a number of modern sonnets. Examples provided here include a number of modern and contemporary poems included in the “Shakespeare’s Sisters” seminar for high school students taught at the Folger. This ten-week course introduces Petrarchan conventions, Shakespearean, Elizabethan and Renaissance sonnets, and the evolving language and topics of women writers from Shakespeare’s time up to the present.

What You NeedCopies of as many of these sonnets as you would like to make available to the class. Suggested sonnets include: Carol Ann Duffy, “Anne Hathaway”; Maxine Kumin, “Purgatory”; Billy Collins, “Sonnet”; Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Sonnets XLIII: “How do I love thee; XX: Beloved, my Beloved; XIV: If Thou must love me”; Edna St Vincent Millay, “Pity me not…(Levin pg 185); Millay, “I think I should have loved you presently” (POL website); Millay, “What lips my lips have kissed (POL website); Rita Dove, “Hades’ Pitch”; Carol Ann Duffy “Prayer” (Selected Poems pg 127); Marilyn Nelson “How I Discovered Poetry” (POL Anthology pg. 94); Kate Light, “Reading Someone Else’s Love Poems” (Levin pg 331); Julia Alvarez, “Where are the girls who were so beautiful?” (Levin pg. 306); Molly Peacock, “Desire” (and there are 3 others too) Levin pgs. 298 & 299; Marie Ponsot, “Winter” (POL website)

(Note—I know this is ridiculously too much: wanted to sketch out some choices.) Gigi these are all good – your call on how to limit. Certainly Duffy, Kumin,

Billy Collins and Millay, and Marilyn Nelson, with maybe a descriptive phrase as a “teaser” for each poem, for those overburdened teachers who do not have time to go read them all.

Louisa, you are right & I like your choice of poems. Let’s see what Bob says & then I’ll write those teaser descriptions.

What’s On for Today and Why

15

The Shakespearean sonnet continues to influence writers through the years. Over five centuries, women writers and men writing about women have extended and transformed the sonnet to allow their voices to be heard. Students will understand that understanding sonnets is relevant to writing today and will read sonnets addressing familiar themes in contemporary language.

What to do Hand out copies of the poems you have selected. Note: Maybe we should point them toward the Duffy, the Kumin, the Billy

Collins, a Millay & then check out the stunning Marilyn Nelson poem too.) Read each poem aloud, with one student reading the octave and the other the

sestet, or 3 students each reading a quatrain and a fourth reading the concluding couplet.

How are these poems different from Shakespeare and Renaissance writers? Discuss how diction and concerns change over the centuries. What is the same and what is altered?

Are these Shakespearean or Petrarchan in form? Take note of how women change Petrarchan conventions. (Note—perhaps a

Millay should be selected for this and the lesson plan written around the Millay?) Maybe – though I like what you have. Let’s ask Bob. Can students identify the continuing influence of Shakespeare today?

How did it go?Do students understand that sonnets are not just a form but a way of thinking? Do they understand the dialectical nature of sonnets and the importance of the volta? Can they attempt a sonnet in completely modern language? Did they enjoy the unit and do they understand why there is so much fuss about Shakespeare?

HomeworkAssign a completely modern topic (Ipods, school lunches or the dance, sports, etc.) and ask students to write a sonnet on this topic. Award style point for the intelligent use of slang and contemporary idiom within a coherent rhyme scheme.

16