it's time for Shakespeare!

LEVEL: Form 4

TIME: 30 minutes

AIMS: To find specific information on a Website and answer questions regarding Sonnet 18 by referring to information on the Website.

TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS:

One computer per student with an Internet connection and a Web Browser.

WEBSITES:

1. http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/shakesonnets/section3.rhtml

2. http://www.megaessays.com/essay_search/poem_sonnet_18.html

PREPARATION:

1. Locate sites dedicated to Sonnet 18

2. Using the information on the site, prepare a worksheet.

PROCEDURE:

1. Ask the students to recall anything they know about the Sonnet 18 by Shakespeare based on
previous lecture by teacher. Ask them to identify the quatrains and couplet in the poem.

2. Give the worksheet prepared. Ask them if they can answer any of the questions based on
their understanding on the poem. Tell students that all the answers are available online.

3. Send students to the sites chosen, ask them to complete the worksheets, making sure they
check any of the answers they have already written.

4. While doing this, students should locate words or lines in stanza that is new or difficult for
them.

5. When all students have completed the task, discuss any unfamiliar words or lines in the stanza
they encountered.

6. Discuss all answers in the tasks sheet.

7. Finally, asks students to further their reading on Sonnet 18 which can be done on Sonnet 18
websites and write a short paragraph pretending they are Shakespeare to enhance their
understanding of the poem.

FOLLOW-UP:

1. Ask students to list down 5 words (e.g: Shakespeare's language like thee, thou,) from the
poem 'Sonnet 18'.

2. Then instruct students to compose a 1 stanza love poem using those 5 words.

3. Write an example of the poem using the words on the board to give clearer explanation to the
students.

WORKSHEET:

Read the extracts and answer the questions that follow.

First quatrain
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:

1. What does “more temperate” mean?
_________________________________________________________ (1 marks)

2. What does the phrase “thou art more lovely” mean?
_________________________________________________________ (1 mark)

3. What does the word “thee” refers to?
_________________________________________________________ (1 marks)

4. What are “the darling buds of May”?
_________________________________________________________ (1 mark)

Second quatrain
Sometimes 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;

1. What does the line “And every fair from fair sometime declines”?
_________________________________________________________ (1 marks)

2. What does the word “untrimm’d” mean?
_________________________________________________________ (1 mark)

3. Why is the gold complexion of the eye of heaven often dimmed?
_________________________________________________________ (1 mark)

Third quatrain
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possesion of that fair thou ow’st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wand’rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st

1. What does “thy eternal summer” refer to?
_________________________________________________________ (1 mark)

2. What is death potrayed as?
_________________________________________________________ (1 mark)

3. What does it mean by “Nor shall Death brag thou wand’rest in his shade?
_________________________________________________________ (1 mark)

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

1. What does “this” refer to?
_________________________________________________________ (1 mark)

2. Explain the phrase “So long as men can breathe and eyes can see”
_______________________________________________________ (1 mark)

3. Who does “men” refer to?
_______________________________________________________ (1 mark)