On Tuesday we should hear from all four groups. (See the group listings, below.)
Here's one way to set up five slides in your group's PowerPoint:
Slide 1. YOUR SONNET, free & clear of any notation -- a nice way to share your reading.
Slide 2. FORM(A) -- The verse structure: most likely, three quatrains and a rhymed couplet.
[But does your sonnet "set up" more effectively & logically as 8 + 6 (instead of 4 + 4 + 4 + 2)?? If so, you might be smart to look up an earlier sonnet form, the Petrarchan sonnet. The Italian Renaissance poet Petrarch started the "sonnet craze" a couple of hundred years before Shakespeare, and the Italian structure of 8 + 6 has survived -- not only in certain of Shakespeare's sonnets but also in sonnets from the 17th through the 20th centuries.]
Slide 3. FORM(B) -- Scansion in iambic pentameter: the strong and weak beats, and what the resulting points of emphasis signify to your group about Shakespeare's intentions.
Slide 4. LANGUAGE -- Another "map" of the sonnet, this time highlighting Shakespeare's word play.
Slide 5. IDEAS. Your interpretation of the main idea, or ideas, of this poem.
Naturally you're welcome to reshape this 5-part set-up! You don't have to slavishly follow what's here: it's only a suggestion. Make it your own!
See the previous blog for more specifics about Form, Language, and Ideas.
