Shakespearean Drama

1
Shakespearean Drama

• The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet

2
Poetry devices

• Metaphor Review
• A figure of speech which compares two things that
  are really not alike in most respects, but which
  seem alike in one meaningful way. In a metaphor,
  the comparison is made without the use of such
  words as like or as.

3
Metaphors

• The old mans face was a brittle page in the
  book of his life.
• Carpeting is indoor grass, lush and soft on the
  feet.
• The locker rooms smell was an attack force,
  assaulting my nose with random explosions of
  pungent odors.

4
Metaphors

• Effective metaphors or not?
• A Porsche 911 Turbo is a fast car.
• A tornado is a funnel cloud.
• A heavy-metal rock star is a loud singer.

5
Poetry devices

• Simile Review
• A simile is a figure of speech that directly
  compares two things that are not really alike in
  most respects, but that are alike in some way
  that makes the comparison effective. In a simile,
  the comparison is always made by using specific
  comparing words such as like or as.

6
Similes

• The heavily tattooed man is like a walking
  storybook.
• Lake Minnetonka is like a womans heart deep,
  murky, and mysterious.
• During the last minute of passing period,
  Wayzata High School is like a beehive, with
  students buzzing frantically around, trying to
  get to the right cell of the honeycomb on time.

7
Similes

• Effective similes yes or no?
• Fresh-fallen snow is as cold as winter.
• The black stallion was as black as coal.
• Candy is like sugar super sweet.

8
Shakespeares figurative language

• Lets re-visit Friar Laurences soliloquy at the
  beginning of Act 2. In it, find an example of
• Metaphor
• Simile
• Personification
• Classical allusion
• Reversed sentence construction
• Wait, whats that?
• Lets find out.

9
Shakespearean Drama

• When Shakespearean actors say their lines, they
  dont just speak lines of dialogue. Often,
  theyre also speaking lines of dramatic poetry
  that are written in a sound pattern called iambic
  pentameter (invented by the Greeks)
• When these lines dont rhyme and are not grouped
  in stanzas, theyre called blank verse a line
  has five instances of unstressed syllable,
  followed by a stressed syllable.
• Romeo and Juliet features much more rhymed
  iambic pentameter, often with punctuation at the
  end of each line to make the rhymes even
  stronger.
• He often employs rhyming to emphasize the strong
  emotional content (such as Romeo and Juliets
  love).
• Adapted from Barrons Simply Shakespeare

10
Shakespearean Drama

• An iamb contains one unaccented (or unstressed
  syllable) and one accented (or stressed) syllable
  in that order. It borrows from the natural swing
  of our heartbeats to go ker-THUMP, ker-THUMP.
• Five of these ker-thumping units in a row make a
  line of iambic pentameter.

11
Shakespearean Drama

• Here is a line of perfect iambic pentameter
• He WENT to TOWN toDAY to BUY a CAR.
• That can get monotonous. So writers like
  Shakespeare change the iambic pentameter pattern
  of their blank verse to keep things interesting
  and to make poetry.
• In SOOTH/I KNOW/not WHY/I AM/so SAD (Merchant
  of Venice, Act 1, Scene 1)

12
Sonnets

• Sonnets were most often used as love poems.
  Romeo and Juliet recite one to one another when
  they meet at the party. However, sonnets are used
  elsewhere in the play, too (such as in the
  prologues).
• The Shakespearean sonnet consists of three
  verses with four lines in each verse, then a
  fourth verse with only two lines.

13
Sonnets

• The structure of it might look like this
• Xxxxxxxxxx
• Xxxxxxxxxx
• Xxxxxxxxxx
• Xxxxxxxxxx
• Xxxxxxxxxx
• Xxxxxxxxxx
• Xxxxxxxxxx
• Xxxxxxxxxx
• Xxxxxxxxxx
• Xxxxxxxxxx
• Xxxxxxxxxx
• xxxxxxxxxx
• Xxxxxxxxxx
• xxxxxxxxxx

14
Sonnets

• The rhyming pattern for the first three verses
  is
• abab cdcd efef
• This means the last word of the first line
  rhymes with the last word of the third line. The
  last word of the second line rhymes with the last
  word of the fourth line in each quatrain.
• For the fourth verse (the two-line verse, known
  as a couplet) the rhyming pattern is gg. This
  means the last word of the first line rhymes with
  the last word of the second line.

15
Sonnets

• Lets look at a sonnet from Romeo and Juliet
  that all of you are somewhat familiar with The
  Prologue to Act 1

16
Sonnets

• 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-crossed lovers take their life
• Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
• Doth with their death bury their parents strife.
• The fearful passage of their death-marked love,
• And the continuance of their parents rage,
• Which but their childrens 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.

17
Sonnets

• The poem has 14 lines, arranged in three verses
  of four lines, and a fourth verse of two lines.
• It follows the rhyming pattern noted earlier.
• Lastly, each line contains 10 syllables
• From (1) forth (2) the (3) fatal (4,5) loins (6)
  of (7) these (8) two (9) foes (10)
• Thats your challenge to write a sonnet.
• But theres more.