William Shakespeare

Man of a Thousand Words

William Shakespeare

• Born in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1564

• Died April, 23, 1616 and is buried in the Holy Trinity Church in Stratford

• Arrived in London in 1588

Subjects of Shakespearean Sonnets

• Ability first written about in 1592

• Wrote 37 plays and 154 poems

• Invented the word ASSASSINATION plus roughly 1700 others

First quatrain: An explanation of the main theme and main metaphor.

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day Thou art more lovely and more temperate

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of MayAnd summer’s lease hath all too short a date

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,And often is his gold complexion dimmed;And every fair from fair sometime declines,By chance, or nature’s changing course,

untrimmed;

Second quatrain: Theme and metaphor are extended or complicated; often some imaginative

example is given.

Third Quatrain- A twist or conflict.

But thy eternal summer shall not fade,Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest,Nor shall death brag thou wanderest in his shadeWhen in eternal lines to time thou growest

Couplet: Summarizes and leaves the reader with a new, concluding image

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.