Presentation4 : Shakespeares sonnets

Aseel Nassar
Target students: third year students ( English major students).
Duration: 2 classes (60 minutes for each class).
The lesson plan: (warm up, analyzing, vocabulary , language and
writing)

Period 1
Step 1: Asking these questions: )opining questions)
1- What is a sonnet ? The word sonnet comes from the Italian
sonnetto, which means little song. Sonnets are 14-line poems,
traditionally about love, that follow particular rhythm and rhyme
schemes. Sonnets can take several forms. Shakespeare used the
Elizabethan form, which consists of three quatrains followed by a
couplet. Each quatrain is four lines. The couplet is rhyming lines at the
end of the sonnet. Because this form uses each rhyme only once, it
allows the poet more versatility.

2- Teacher shows three pictures to the students and asks

them these questions :
a- Describe these pictures?
b- How do you feel when you see them?
c- What feelings do you associate with images of autumn? A
sunset?
d- Why does a writer use metaphoric language?
e- What have you read by Shakespeare?

Step 2: Introduction : The poem is full of images, like the fall , a day,
and a dying fire all of them are coming to an end. The beginning of each fourline unit (called a quatrain) and in the couplet (the last two rhyming lines) they
give emphasis to his theme.

Step 2 : Teacher asks students to read the poem aloud

In the same class, the teacher with students will go through the
poem and explain some keywords that help student to understand.

Key Vocabulary
1. thou (pron.) you
2. mayst (v.) may
3. behold (v.) see
4. ere (prep.) before
5. by and by (adv.) over time
6. doth (v.) does, do
7. expire (v.) die
8. consumed (v.) used up
9. nourishd (v.) fed
10. whereon (adv.) on which

Step 3 : Teacher gives the students a paper contains some

questions they have to answer after reading
Reading Comprehension Questions
Circle the suitable answer :
1. What time of year does the speaker use as a metaphor?
a. Spring
b. Summer
c. Fall
d. Winter
2. Which image represents the speakers aging?
a. boughs
b. leaves
c. birds
d. choirs
3. What are the bare ruind choirs?
a. tree branches
b. poor children
c. winter birds
d. church singers
4. Why does the speaker compare himself to twilight?

a. He is losing his sight.

b. He has an illness.
c. He is growing old.
d. He prefers the evening.
5. What does the fire represent?
a. love
b. rage
c. warmth
d. youth
6. What is happening to the speakers youth?
a. It has been used up.
b. It is gaining new strength.
c. He cant remember it.
d. He cant forget it.
7. What does the poet say makes love stronger?
a. The fact that it wont end
b. The fact that it will end
c. Youthfulness
d. Knowledge
8. What is the likely message of the poem?
a. Youth is wasted on the young.
b. Aging poets deserve respect.
c. Truth is beauty.
d. Love should not fade with time.
9. What is Deaths second self in the sonnet?
a. birth
b. love
c. sleep
d. night
10. Who is the speaker most likely addressing in the poem?
a. himself
b. a lover
c. Death
d. Nature

Step 3 : Teacher with students go through analyzing

(Analyzing)
That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
In this quatrain, the speaker who is trying to break it gently to his beloved
the news that he's going to die, that he's in the last stages of his life and that
the beloved will have to go on alone . In the first lines, the word order is
inverted from what we would say in current English. The word order would go
more like this: "In me, you might behold that time of year when yellow leaves,
or none, or few, do hang upon the boughs." So the speaker is saying you'll see
in me that fall when the leaves are just barely hanging on the trees, or when
the leaves are already blown away by the winter winds. This image is quite
sad, quite lonely. The picture of few leaves hanging and trembling against the
cold, creates the feeling of loneliness
About the choirs," the speaker is saying in that place where there used to be
choirs of birds
all singing in the spring, now there's almost no birds at all. The word "late"
means recently, So now we don't have any sweet birds anymore, and we don't
have any leaves. All these ending images are created .
quatrain number 2
In me thou seest the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west,
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death's second self, that seals up all in rest.
So, after the sun has gone down... "which by-and-by black night take away
its place . The black night will take away twilight. consequently, night is
compared to death death's second self . As the same way that death takes
away someone's life, night closes down the day. The image is that

death seals up people in coffins.

The third quatrain:
In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the death-bed whereon it must expire,
Consum'd with that which it was nourish'd by.
The speaker compares his life to a fire, this fire is burning and its eating
itself creating a lot of ashes .As a result, his youth is going to expire. It'll be
nothing ,but ashes cannot be reignite. The fire is burning down, going out,
permanently, which is much like death , "consum'd with that which it was
nourish'd by." So the fire is consumed by the thing that it was nourished by
which is wood.
The couplet: "

all of what the speaker has mentioned ( the state toward the end of his
life)
makes love more strong as his lover see him dying. This is very close to
reality because a lot of us feel so much closer to people when we realize
we're going to lose them. Suddenly, we appreciate them more and more. The
last line, refers to this as well: "To love that well,

Period 2 :
Language and vocabulary:

Step 1: Teacher reminds the students of the difference

between a few and few
when yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang:
The Difference between A few and Few ( they used with countable
nouns)
a few = two or three / a couple
few = not many / almost none

Step 2 : teacher asks student to give synonyms and

opposites of the word twilight .
synonyms: Dusk star \ sunset star \declinestar\dimnessstar\ end
star\eveningstar\ eventidestar\ gloamingstar\ half-lightstar \nightstar\ nightfall
star\ sundownstar\ afterlightstar\ early evening star\ last phasestar \ lateafternoon star
Antonyms for twilight : rise \ daybreak\ dawn\ sunrise

Step 3 : Writing
Task 1: teacher asks students to paraphrase the sonnet
SONNET 73 PARAPHRASE
That time of year thou mayst in me behold In me you can see that time of year
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang When few yellow leaves or none at all hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold, On the branches, shaking against the cold,
Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang. Bare ruins of church choirs where lately the sweet
birds sang.
In me thou seest the twilight of such day In me you can see only the dim light that remains
As after sunset fadeth in the west, After the sun sets in the west,
Which by and by black night doth take away, Which is soon extinguished by black night,
Death's second self, that seals up all in rest. The image of death that envelops all in rest.
In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire I am like a glowing ember
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie, Lying on the dying flame of my youth,
As the death-bed whereon it must expire, As on the death bed where it must finally expire,
Consum'd with that which it was nourish'd by. Consumed by that which once fed it.
This thou perceivest, which makes thy love more This you sense, and it makes your love more
strong, determined
To love that well which thou must leave ere long. Causing you to love that which you must give up

before long.

Task 2: teacher asks student to write a paragraph about

the fear of losing someone.