Another Set of Paraphrase and Shakespearean Sonnets
Student Name: _______________________Date: _______Period: ________
Sonnets are a poem with a very specific STRUCTURE. Use the poem below to answer questions about the structure of
the sonnet below.
Sonnet 130
1. What is the rhyme scheme of this poem?
My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun
Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damask'd, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:
And yet, by heaven*, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.
2. How many lines are in this poem?
3. How many syllables are in each line?
*"heaven" here is said "heav'n".
More info:
 Written in….
 Iamb=
 Lines always begins with…
 Used usually by…
Try out your new info:
1. Construct a line about a cookie in iambic pentameter.
2. Construct a line about a toad in iambic pentameter.
3. Construct a line about a topic of your choice in iambic pentameter.
Directions: Read the following sonnet. Mark the original text for stressed syllables using a highlighter or underlining.
Finally, paraphrase the lines which have been left un-paraphrased. Use a dictionary/resource packet as necessary.
PROLOGUE of The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
Paraphrase:
Two households, both alike in dignity,
Two families who are similar in their good reputations,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
_____________________________________________,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Start a new fight when an old tensions rise again,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
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From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
Born by the cursed parents of these two warring families
A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;
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Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
Do with their death bury their parents' strife.
The result of these unfortunate events is that these
pitiable characters
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The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,
The terrifying story of their love which is ruined by death,
And the continuance of their parents' rage,
_____________________________________________,
Which, but their children's end, nought could remove,
Which was only ended by their children's death,
Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage;
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The which if you with patient ears attend,
The details, if you are patient, you will learn,
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.
_____________________________________________.
1. What are possible subjects of this “sonnet”?
2. What do you think the meaning of this sonnet is?
3. What literary deceives can you identify in the text of the prologue?
4. Write a thesis: How does Shakespeare use literary devices to create meaning in the prologue of Romeo and Juliet?