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William Shakespeare

Born April 1564, Stratford-on-Avon

Classical education: Latin, history, Greek, math, astronomy, and music

Actor

Wrote 38 plays

Sonnets and poems

Verse

Poetic language that has meter and sometimes rhythm

organized in lines

syllables

used for high status

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Prose

normal written language

no meter or rhythm

organized with sentences

used for low status

Meter

the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables

responsible for making the rhythm of a line

metrical feet in a line of verse

Foot

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

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Iambic pentameter

this is the most common metrical pattern that Shakespeare uses

unstressed syllable, stressed syllable / `/ `/ ` /

Blank Verse

no rhythm

Free Verse

No regular meter

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Sonnet

14 line poem that is written in iambic pentameter

it is organized in three quatrains and a couplet

rhythm scheme abab cdcd efef gg

break & turn

Quatrain

it is a 4 lined stanza

Couplet

pair of rhyming verse

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Aside

characters remark to the audience or another character

Monologue

extended speech by one character, no one interrupts

Soliloquy

character gives speech when they are alone on stage

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Foil

a character whose personality and/ or attitudes are in a sharp contrast to another character

Allusion

referring to an event, person, or place to another literature