Author:
Tyler Barna
Subject:
Reading Literature
Material Type:
Lesson, Reading
Level:
High School
Grade:
9
Tags:
  • NE ELA
  • Nebraska Department of Education
  • Prologue
  • Romeo and Juliet
  • Shakespeare
  • Sonnet
  • License:
    Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike
    Language:
    English
    Media Formats:
    Downloadable docs, Text/HTML, Video

    Education Standards

    Sonnets leading to Romeo and Juliet

    Overview

    Objective: Students will learn about the traits of a sonnet and practice reading sonnets. Students will use this expose to sonnets to read the Prologue of Romeo and Juliet.

    Time Required: 90 minutes. 

    Materials Needed: Internet-enabled device 

    Student Tasks: Reading, Writing and/or Discussion 

    Anticipatory Sety

    Let's recall what we know about poetry. Discuss the following questions with a partner or small group: 

    • What makes poetry different from prose? 
    • Some poetry has form - a structure or pattern that dictates how a poem is put together. What examples of form poetry can you think of? 

    Sonnets are one type of form poetry; you will learn more about sonnets in this lesson. 

    Resources: What is a Sonnet?

    Use the following resources to learn more about sonnets. 

    Using these resources, discuss what you know about sonnets. Takes notes about your conversation. Refer back to the text or video as needed. 

    Sonnet Work

    Three sonnets were mentioned in your learning thus far. 

    • Read each of the three sonnets.
    • Choose one sonnet to focus on. 
    • Read the chosen sonnet carefully. 

     

    Sonnet 18

    Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

    Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

    Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

    And summer’s lease hath all too short a date;

    Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,

    And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;

    And every fair from fair sometime declines,

    By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm'd;

    But thy eternal summer shall not fade,

    Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;

    Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade,

    When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:

       So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,

       So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

     

    Sonnet 116

    Let me not to the marriage of true minds

    Admit impediments. Love is not love

    Which alters when it alteration finds,

    Or bends with the remover to remove.

    O no! it is an ever-fixed mark

    That looks on tempests and is never shaken;

    It is the star to every wand'ring bark,

    Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.

    Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks

    Within his bending sickle's compass come;

    Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,

    But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

       If this be error and upon me prov'd,

       I never writ, nor no man ever lov'd.

     

    Sonnet 130

    My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;

    Coral is far more red than her lips' red;

    If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;

    If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.

    I have seen roses damasked, red and white,

    But no such roses see I in her cheeks;

    And in some perfumes is there more delight

    Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.

    I love to hear her speak, yet well I know

    That music hath a far more pleasing sound;

    I grant I never saw a goddess go;

    My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground.

       And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare

       As any she belied with false compare.


     

    Discuss the following items: 

    • What is your sonnet about? Provide a brief summary. 
    • What is Shakspeare's subject in this sonnet? What is Shakespeare's attitude about his subject? 
    • What within the sonnet drew you to the sonnet that you ultimately chose? 
    • Which lines of the sonnet are the most interesting or thought-provoking. Explain your thinking.
    • Some critics say that Shakespeare had a negative, pessimistic view on love. Using explicit evidence from the sonnet, argue for or against this statement. 

    Read the Prologue

    A prologue introduces the reader to "Romeo and Juliet". 

    No Fear Shakespeare is a tool that puts Shakespearean language side-by-side with a modern English translation. 

    • Navigate to No Fear Shakespeare to read the prologue.
    • Read the prologue in Shakespeare's original language. Do your best to determine what Shakespeare is saying.
    • Read the modern side. Revise and clarify your original understanding of the prologue.

    Questions about the prologue

    Answer the following questions, use the prologue below as a reference

     

    Two households, both alike in dignity,

    In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,

    From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,

    Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.

    From forth the fatal loins of these two foes

    A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life;

    Whose misadventur’d piteous overthrows

    Doth with their death bury their parents’ strife.

    The fearful passage of their death-mark’d love,

    And the continuance of their parents’ rage,

    Which, but their children’s end, nought could remove,

    Is now the two hours’ traffic of our stage;

    The which if you with patient ears attend,

    What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.

     

     

    • Is this prologue a sonnet? Explain your reasoning. 
    • How is the prologue similar in content to the sonnet(s) you have already read? 
    • The prologue details the plot of the play. Briefly summarize what will happen in "Romeo and Juliet" based on this prologue. 
    • What lines from the prologue suggest that important characters die in "Romeo and Juliet?"
    • Why would Shakespeare open his play by openly stating the impending deaths of his characters?