English 1

Today in class, students read their choice novels for 20 minutes. Next we talked about Shakespeare's poetry, and read a few of his most famous: "Seven Ages of Man", "Sonnet 18", and "Sonnet 130". We discussed the conventions of a sonnet, and talked about the two "categories" that into which Shakespeare's sonnets can be divided. Sonnet 18 is a "fair youth" sonnet while Sonnet 130 is a "dark lady" sonnet. Students also worked on learning to annotate poems, and for homework, they are also challenged with creating their own sonnet, making sure to follow all of the conventions we talked about in class.

Homework

• Finish writing your sonnet. Remember that sonnets must:

- Be 14 lines long

-Have 10 syllables per line (following iambic pentameter)

-Follow the idea of 3 quatrains and an ending couplet

-Follow the rhyme scheme abab cdcd efef gg

-Be about love