Discovering Traditional Sonnet Forms

Printouts

Websites

Traditional Sonnets for Analysis

Preparation

 

PRINTOUTS

• Sonnet Characteristics Chart
  
  
• Shakespearean Sonnet Checklist

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WEBSITES

• Interactive Sonnet Characteristics Chart
• Traditional Sonnets for Analysis

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TRADITIONAL SONNETS FOR ANALYSIS

• “Composed Upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802” by William Wordsworth
  
  
• “Death, be not proud” (Holy Sonnet 10) by John Donne
  
  
• “How Do I Love Thee?” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
  
  
• “Leda and the Swan” by William Butler Yeats
  
  
• “Mowing” by Robert Frost
  
  
• “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” (Sonnet 130) by William Shakespeare
  
  
• “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus
  
  
• “On First Looking into Chapman's Homer” by John Keats
  
  
• “The Oven Bird” by Robert Frost
  
  
• “Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley
  
  
• “Putting in the Seed” by Robert Frost
  
  
• “Range-finding” by Robert Frost
  
  
• “Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?” (Sonnet 18) by William Shakespeare
  
  
• “the sonnet-ballad” by Gwendolyn Brooks
  
  
• “When I Consider How My Light Is Spent” by John Milton
  
  
• “The world is too much with us; late and soon” by William Wordsworth

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PREPARATION

• Arrange for online access to read the traditional sonnets listed above. Otherwise, make copies of the sonnets listed above or identify sonnets in your class texts that students can use for this project.
  
  
• Decide how to distribute the poems to your students. There are enough poems for five groups of students to each analyze three poems. Ideally, assign groups sonnets from a range of time periods (e.g., assigning a group a poem by Shakespeare, Frost, and Shelley rather than only sonnets by Frost or only sonnets by Shakespeare). Remember that the Gwendolyn Brooks’ poem “the sonnet-ballad” is used for the class demonstration, so it does not need to be assigned to a group.
  
  
• Test the Interactive Sonnet Characteristics Chart on your computers to familiarize yourself with the tool and ensure that you have the Flash plug-in installed. You can download the plug-in from the technical support page.
  
  
• (optional) If computer access is limited, make copies of the Sonnet Characteristics Chart for students, in lieu of the interactive version.

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