Y7: The Sonnet Form (Week 7)

Hello Year 7!

This week, we’re turning our attention to a poetic form that Shakespeare helped to make famous: the sonnet.

In this part of the unit, you’ll be learning about how the sonnet form works, reading examples by Shakespeare and other poets, and each week you’ll try out some poetic lines of your own in a series of ‘Metrical Challenges’. Hopefully, by the end of term, you’ll be ready to write a sonnet of your own!

Here’s your work for the week beginning June 8^th:

1) Read and make notes on the information in this powerpoint:

2) Read William Wordsworth’s famous sonnet, ‘Composed Upon Westminster Bridge’, and answer the questions that follow (click here if you are viewing on an Apple device and cannot see a full-screen or download button):

If you’d like more examples and more information about some of these key terms, take a look here:

• iambic pentameter
• the sonnet

3) Metrical Challenge 1: Iambic Pentameter

Write at least five lines of iambic pentameter of your own.

Have a look at the powerpoint below for help, advice and examples. When you’ve finished, send your best lines (or all of them!) to Mr Muralee in an email. Make sure you put the name of your English teacher in your email too. There will be merits for the best lines – and maybe (with your permission) I’ll share some of them next week!

Good luck!

That’s it for this week. In the next few weeks, we’ll gradually build up to writing a whole sonnet of your own. Perhaps there will be prizes for the best ones and we’ll put them together in an anthology.

Please get in touch if you need any help.

THE ENGLISH DEPARTMENT