This week, language lovers around the world are celebrating 400 years since the death of Shakespeare (and 452 years since his birth!). Celebrations of Shakespeare's life and work have been happening across the globe and will continue through this year. In honor of the Bard, try your hand at writing (or re-writing) a sonnet. A Shakespearean sonnet has 14 lines - 3 quatrains of 4 lines each followed by a rhyming couplet that resolves the theme or problem set in the quatrains. The rhyme scheme: ABAB CDCD EFEF GG
If thou needs inspiration, here is Sonnet #18:
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:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed,
And every fair form fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed:
But they eternal summal shall not fade,
Nor lose possession 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,
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
Share your writing with us! Post your sonnet in the comments section of our blog!
