Sonnet 29: A Modern Analysis
Let's Text It!
Sonnet 29 Original Text
SONNET 29
When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes,I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself, and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featur'd like him, like him with friends possess'd,
Desiring this man's art and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;
For thy sweet love remember'd such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.
Convert Each Line to a Modern Text Message Directions
2. Try to figure out the meaning of each line...this will be easier if you look at each quatrain separately and then put it all together.
3. Use the Sonnet Analysis Form to do your basic analysis (I have this attached and it will also be posted to Google Classroom.
Answer all of the questions below! You can do this by highlighting words or text...typing your comments in a different color between each line, etc. If I ask you personally what a word means and you don't know...then I know you didn't look it up as required!
Name ________________________________ Period __________
Shakespearean Sonnet Exercise
Write the words of the sonnet here (copy and paste):
- Read through the sonnet once and jot down rough ideas (to the side of the poem)
- Look up any unfamiliar words and provide the definitions
- Label the rhyme scheme of the sonnet
- Analyze each line and quatrain then paraphrase into modern English
- What is the theme?
- What is the message in the concluding couplet?
- Who is the speaker in the sonnet (not Shakespeare)?
- What is the mood, tone, or voice (happy, sad, gloomy)?
- Pick a symbol that you feel illustrates the overall meaning of the sonnet (find one in Google images).
- Be prepared to discuss, debate, defend your individual findings
Quatrain #1
An outcast?
Deaf Heaven?
Curse my Fate!!
Quatrain #2
I want friends
I want your talent and personality
I hate everything....especially myself!
Wah, wah, wah....Boo Hoo!
So what is the problem here?
Quatrain #3
Birds singing at heavens gate...Woo Hoo! Things are looking up! Why?
Almost There...The Final Concluding Couplet
I wouldn't change a thing in my life!
Why?