Approaches to Teaching Shakespeare

Classroom Activities

Classroom Activity #1

One qualification necessary for a close reading of Shakespeare's sonnets is knowing how to scan a poem. I do not think it is necessary for my students to learn the names of all of the possible configurations of stressed and unstressed syllables. Instead, I plan on giving them just the information found earlier in this unit in the section entitled Sonnet Notation.

My students have a difficult time hearing the difference between a stressed and unstressed syllable. I will begin by mentioning that an iamb is like a heartbeat - dah dum, dah dum, dah dum - one of the primary rhythms of life. I will also talk about not only listening for the louder syllable, but also the one that is higher pitched, since these features go together in English. Students like to insist that the accent falls where it does depending on how you say something, and sometimes admittedly it is a subjective decision. However, they would like to say it is always subjective. To counter this argument, I will begin with their names. After all, we say Therésa, not Theresá, no matter what our inflection. We say Rómó, but never Roméo, unless we are talking about the car, the Alfa Roméo. I would give other examples of how silly a name would sound if the accent were moved.

After practicing with many names, starting with the names of the students in my class, we would move on to prose, using lines that students make up. We would scan the line together as a class, and work on making alterations so that the line is changed to iambic pentameter. For instance, let's say we began with the sentence, "Í left schóol in a húrry to dó my hómework." I would ask, "Do you see any way we could add or subtract a syllable to alter the placement of stresses?" I would model making these changes, thinking aloud as I made them. I might say, "The opening two syllables begin stressed and unstressed, so I need to add something so that this changes. If I add the word "the," the pattern changes to "I léft the schóol." I could leave "in a hurry" the way it is because two unstressed syllables in a row kind of sound like someone is in a hurry, but if I want to change that, it could become "to rúsh." I now have, "I léft the schóol to rúsh to dó my …" What word could I put there that is just one syllable? I might ask students to help me with that one. Now I would ask students to try to convert a prose sentence into an iambic pentameter line themselves. A volunteer could write their sentence on the board, and together, as a class, we could scan it and make corrections if need be. Next, students would work in pairs to write several more, and write these on the board for the whole class to scan.

A woman only identified as Vicki100 on her blog suggests playing with parts of Shakespeare's sonnets to encourage students to work with meter. I might give the following as examples before assigning this to my students using another sonnet. For example, part of Shakespeare's "Sonnet 2" written originally in iambic pentameter without any rhythmic substitution reads:

    When forty wonders shall besiege thy brow
    And dig deep trenches in thy beauty's field,
    Thy youth's proud livery so gazed on now,
    Will be a tattered weed of small worth held.
  

Students working with a partner would be assigned to play with this and convert it to iambic trimeter:

    When forty winters shall
    Besiege thy brow and dig
    Deep trenches in thy face
    Thy youth's proud livery
    Will be a worthless weed.
  

The poem could be shifted from iambic to trochaic meter:

    Forty winters shall besiege thy lovely
    Brow and dig deep trenches in thy beauty's
    Field and youth's proud livery loved so fully
    Soon will be a tattered weed of little worth.
  

Before venturing on to the difficult task of analyzing Shakespeare's sonnets, I want my students to try their own hand at writing poems in iambic verse. Each could write about any mundane incident in their daily lives. The assignment would then be to turn this into a four to six line poem of iambic meter, not necessarily pentameter. For instance, here is an example I wrote in iambic tetrameter. It doesn't rhyme, and it isn't very poetic, but it is an example of the sort of thing my students could do easily to practice meter:

    I wálked to Shóprite neár my hoúse
    To búy some foód to máke my lúnch
    I wálked alóng the crówded stréets
    Arrivíng there all sét to shóp.
    I sáw sardínes and saíd, "Oh nó!"
    I'd ráther háve some p and j.
  

Classroom Activity # 2

The next hurdle is to communicate to my students that the placement of the stressed syllable can underscore the meaning. Because I think they will not find it easy, I will engage them in an exercise or two before we look at the sonnets. I would have them compare lines where the same word is stressed in one, and not in another. The question for each example is: What meaning is conveyed by the placement of the stressed syllable? The word "I" can fall as stressed or unstressed. Shakespeare says, "Haply I think on thee." The "I" is unstressed. "What words are stressed?" I would ask. So what words are most important in that line? What meaning is conveyed by that choice? Compare it to this line from the Bible: "I am the power and I am the glory." What syllables are emphasized here? How does that reflect the meaning? What about in the famous proposition by Ren? Descartes: "I think; therefore I am." I would ask students to think about the answer, share it with their partner, and then share their answer, or their partner's, with the class.

Next I will ask my students, working with the same partner they have been working with in Classroom Activity #1, to try this: Take an ordinary word, such as her, and see if you can write one line where it is stressed and another where it is not. I tried to do this myself to see if it was possible. I came up with these examples: Her há'ir is sílky and shiny; I lóve her líps so réd; Red líps on h&eacu;ter are gross. I could put these on the board and ask students to discuss the results of the different emphases. In each line, what meaning do we get as a result of the placement of the stress? We could try various words. Each pair of students would place their examples on the board for the class to discuss. The focus of the discussion would be, how does the placement of the word in the line, and its stress, alter the meaning?

Now I would begin to have my students examine some of Shakespeare's sonnets. For instance, we would look at lines like the opening line of sonnet 66 again: "Tíred with áll these, for réstful déath I cry." The emphasis on tired at the start of the line makes me feel tired as I read it. I want them to understand that this is a direct result of inverting the iamb at the start of the line. I would first ask them if they could see the difference in emotional impact between, "I am tíred," and "Tíred I am." We would compare it to a line where tired is in the line and not receiving such as emphasis: "Í was tíred áll the tíme." I am hoping they will see the difference, which, while slight, is important. Line 10 in sonnet 29, "Líke to the lárk at bréak of dáy arísing," is the next example I would offer to demonstrate how the careful placement of a stress can support the intended meaning. An explanation of how this is so is offered earlier in the unit where I discuss sonnet 29. Even just looking at the word arísing helps demonstrate where meaning meets stress placement.

I will ask my students to scan the second line of sonnet 18: "Córal is fár more réd than her líps' red." Now scan the last two lines of the same sonnet, I would say: "I love to hear her speak, yet well I know/That music hath a far more pleasing sound." What difference do you see in the rhythmic pattern of these lines? Does one seem choppier than the other? Does one flow more smoothly? What reasons can you imagine for the poet designing these lines differently? Again, so that more than a few students get to think about this before someone blurts out an answer, I will have students think about the answer on their own, share with a partner, and then share with the class.

Now we would talk about the difference in stanza organization, comparing a Shakespearean sonnet with an octave and a sestet with others using three quatrains and a rhymed couplet. The examples I would use are found earlier in this unit. I would ask students to compare the Shakespearean form found in sonnets 30 and 34 with the Petrarchan form used in sonnet 12. My hope is that students would now be ready to tackle an examination of some of Shakespeare's sonnets on their own, with the assistance of classmates.

Classroom Activity # 3

Students will be divided into groups of four or five, and assigned one of the themes discussed in this curriculum unit. They include: Love or Lust, The Power of Love to Change Reality, The Power of Poetry to Bestow Eternal Life, and Time's Eternal March.

Each group will be asked to prepare a power point presentation to the class in which they explain the meaning of each sonnet assigned to their group, and ways in which Shakespeare has used the form of the sonnet to reflect the meaning. While studying their assigned sonnets, students can use these questions to begin:

1. Where do you see repetition of words or phrases? Do you see examples of anaphora or other repetition of words? Are any thoughts or ideas being emphasized by those repetitions?
2. Scan the meter of the sonnet and look for alterations in the rhythm. Can any meaning be attached to the alteration at that particular moment? Do some lines flow more smoothly in rhythm than others? What significance can be attached to those differences?
3. Look for examples of alliteration or assonance or consonance. How do these sound patterns reflect the meaning of the sonnet?
4. Look for examples of figurative language: extended metaphors, personification, hyperbole, simile, etc. How do these underscore the meaning of the sonnet? Do they ever seem to complicate the message?
5. Closely examine the diction of the sonnet. Select word choices that stand out to you as particularly odd or interesting. What do you make of those word choices? Do they introduce a tone that fits or contrasts with the overall message?

They can also look at their groups of sonnets and ask themselves these questions:

1. How does one sonnet seem to comment on another in your group?
2. Does one sonnet in any way alter the message of another?
3. How do the various sonnets reinforce the meaning of the others?
4. Do you get the sense that any of these sonnets were intended to be read together as a pair or as a group?
5. In the cases where you have consecutively numbered sonnets, does the ending of one ever appear to begin or continue the next?