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William ShakespeareA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
1. Compare and contrast “Sonnet 18” with “Sonnet 130.” In both poems, the speaker discusses their beloved through comparisons to the natural world, but the effect and technique is very different. Yet the last two lines of “Sonnet 130” suggest that the poem is just as much an ode to one’s beloved as “Sonnet 18,” if not more so. Write an essay in which you explain the differing approaches of the two poems, citing specific lines in each as support. Then discuss the ways in which the speaker’s feelings toward the subject in “Sonnet 130” might express a more profound and mature form of love than that expressed in “Sonnet 18.”
2. There are two major types of the sonnet form: the Shakespearean sonnet and the Petrarchan sonnet, named for the Italian poet Francesca Petrarch. Both are traditionally 14 lines; both, generally, are written in iambic pentameter. Yet the rhyme schemes are very different, as you can see in this article. After reviewing the different rhyme schemes, select a Petrarchan sonnet by a notable poet and compare and contrast it to Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 18” in a brief essay of two or three main points. If you are having trouble picking a Petrarchan sonnet, you may choose Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “
By William Shakespeare
All's Well That Ends Well
All's Well That Ends Well
William Shakespeare
A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream
William Shakespeare
Antony and Cleopatra
Antony and Cleopatra
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As You Like It
As You Like It
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Coriolanus
Coriolanus
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Cymbeline
Cymbeline
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Hamlet
Hamlet
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Henry IV, Part 1
Henry IV, Part 1
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Henry IV, Part 2
Henry IV, Part 2
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Henry V
Henry V
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Henry VIII
Henry VIII
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Henry VI, Part 1
Henry VI, Part 1
William Shakespeare
Henry VI, Part 3
Henry VI, Part 3
William Shakespeare
Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar
William Shakespeare
King John
King John
William Shakespeare
King Lear
King Lear
William Shakespeare
Love's Labour's Lost
Love's Labour's Lost
William Shakespeare
Macbeth
Macbeth
William Shakespeare
Measure For Measure
Measure For Measure
William Shakespeare
Much Ado About Nothing
Much Ado About Nothing
William Shakespeare