Writing a sonnet: Year 9

The Prologue is written as a sonnet, and sonnets were a popular form of poetry in Shakespeare's time; they were a traditional and respected poetic form that usually dealt with a theme of requited love. A sonnet has 14 lines with a set rhyme scheme and a fixed rhythm called ' iambic pentameter' (di-dum/di-dum/di-dum/di-dum/di-dum); this helps to create a sense of harmony and acts to link the ideas expressed in the sonnet.


 Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;
Whole misadventured piteous overthrows
Do with their death bury their parents' strife.
The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,
And the continuance of their parents' rage,
Which, but their children's end, nought could remove,
Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage;
The which if you with patient ears attend,
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.

and

Act I, Scene 5ROMEO [To JULIET.]
If I profane with my unworthiest hand    A
This holy shrine, the gentle sin is this:    B
My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand    A
To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.    B

JULIET
Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much,    C
Which mannerly devotion shows in this;    D
For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch,    C
And palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss.    D

ROMEO
Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?    E

JULIET
Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer.    F

ROMEO
O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do;    E
They pray — grant thou, lest faith turn to despair.    F

JULIET
Saints do not move, though grant for prayers' sake.    G

ROMEO
Then move not, while my prayer's effect I take.    G


Write a MODERN DAY sonnet about either:

1) Love
2) Betrayal
3) Family dispute
4) Tragedy