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W.S born 1564- Stratford-on-Avon

education latin

most likely started as actor

wrote 38 plays

wrote 4 lengthy poems

VOCAB

verse vs prose

meter

foot

lambic pentamater

blank verse vs free

verse

sonnet

quatrain

couplet

aside

monologue

soliloquy

allusion

foil

tragedy

tragic hero

tragic flaw

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VERSE VS PROSE

verse: poetic language that inc meter sometimes rhyme, sometimes organized in lines with a consistent number of syllables. used for high status characters, great affairs of war and state and tragic moments.

prose: ordinary written language with no meter or rhyme: organized in sentences. used for low status characters (servants) , proclamations, written challenges, accusations. to express madness

METER: the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables

responsible for creating the rhythm of a line

FOOT: a group of syllables that forms one complete unit of a metrical pattern

M described in terms of the pattern of stressed and stressed syllables and total # of metrical feet in a line of verse

Iambic pentameter is the most common metrical pattern in Shakespeare

Iamb unstressed syllable, stressed syllable

pentameter lines of five iambic feet; 10 syllables

BLANK VERSE: Unrhymed iambic pentameter

FREE VERSE: No regular meter

SONNET

14 line poem written in iambic pentameter

organized in 3 quatrains and a couplet

4 part organization has greater flexibility about where thematic breaks occur

most pronouned break or turn comes with concluding couplet

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