Lesson video

Hello everybody, and welcome to lesson one of "Introduction to Sonnets." Now, you need a pen and a piece of paper so you can write everything down, and if you've got anything on your device that might pop up and disturb you, any other conversations or tabs open, close those down as well so that they don't interrupt.

And if you can find somewhere nice and quiet to work, as soon as you've got all of that in place, we can begin.

So you should have all of these things ready anyway, 'cause we've already discussed them, but if for any reason you don't, just take a moment to pause the video and make sure you've got your pen, your paper and your brain engaged.

Ready? Let's go.

We'll start by looking at what we actually consider to be poetry and some of the features of poetry.

Then we're going to take a look a little bit more closely at the historical context of this particular type of poetry, then an example, and finally, you'll have an opportunity to test your knowledge by completing a quiz.

So what is poetry? I'm sure you know the word, of course, you do.

You've heard it millions of times.

You've had plenty of people read examples of poetry to you and I'm sure you've read plenty of books and studied lots of poems in lessons, but would you actually be able to define if somebody asked you to? Let's take a moment to read through this quotation, defining poetry.

Now, of course there's not one correct answer to what is poetry, this is just an example.

So let's consider it together.

Poetry is a type of literature or artistic writing that attempts to stir a reader's imagination or emotions.

The poet does this by carefully choosing and arranging language for its meaning, sound, and rhythm.

Some poems, such as nursery rhymes, are simple and humorous.

Other poems may try to express some truth about life, to tell a story, or to honour a person or a god.

Poetry appears in a great many forms and styles.

This makes it difficult to define exactly.

So now would be a good time to pause the video and take a moment to read through the definition in your own time, and then when you're ready, unpause, and we can continue with the next activity.

So on this next slide, there are some statements about poetry, which are directly linked to the previous definition that we were just taking a look at on the previous slide.

So can you identify which one of these statements are true and which ones are false? They are all statements on poetry.

Now this would be a good time to pause the video, write down numbers one to seven, and then you're ready to work your way through while I read the statements to you.

So if you pause now, come back as soon as you've got those numbers written down.

Okay, let's work through each of these statements then.

And as I read them, think about what your answer is, note down a T or an F for true or false.

If you do fall behind though, don't panic 'cause there will be time to catch up at the end.

So number one, poetry is a type of literature.

Number two, poems try to capture the reader's imagination.

Number three, poets never consider the meaning of the language they use.

Number four, nursery rhymes are not a type of poetry.

Number five, some poems are simple, others are more complicated.

Number six, poetry comes in many forms and styles.

And number seven, poetry is easy to define.

Now, if you have been writing T or F down as we were reading through together, brilliant, but don't worry if not, take a moment to pause the video now, work back through at your own pace, note down those T's and F's, and as soon as you're ready, let's go through the answers.

So number one, poetry is a type of literature.

Of course, that's true.

There are many, many different types of literature and poetry is just one of them, but it certainly is classed as a form of literature.

Number two, poems try to capture the reader's imagination.

Well, yes, that's definitely true as well, isn't it? That's the entire point of poetry, in order to make you think of, you know, different ideas, and perspectives, and ways of viewing things.

That's the best part of reading poetry because of the way it creates all that imagery in your mind.

Number three, poets never consider the meaning of the language they use.

Well, I really hope you got that that's false.

In order to write a beautiful poetry, the most important part in many ways is to consider the words that you're using.

Obviously, structure is incredibly important too when it comes to poetry, but all poets will consider at great length the type of language they're using.

Number four, nursery rhymes are not a type of poetry.

Of course they are, so that's false.

They are definitely a type of poetry, a wonderful type of poetry.

The first sort of poetry that many of us will encounter when we're children.

So they're definitely still classed as a form of poetry and lovely they are.

So at number five, some poems are simple, others are more complicated.

That's definitely true, isn't it? They really, really vary from the shortest of little.

Well, let me think, haikus and limericks, you may have heard of those and those little short poems with very particular structures, and then you get great long epic poems that go on for hundreds of pages.

So they really, really vary in length and how detailed they are, and that's another thing that's so wonderful about poetry because it's so varied.

Number six, poetry comes in many forms and styles, but if you think about what I was just saying about number five, I'm sure you've realised that's true as well.

It's a very varied form of literature.

Again, something that makes it such a fantastic thing.

And finally, number seven, poetry is easy to find to define, most definitely not.

There is not only one definition of poetry and there's certainly not only one version of poetry, it's hugely varied.

But that's okay.

It doesn't matter.

We don't need to be able to put it in a little definition of perfect box.

That's fine.

So let's carry on and explore different types or certain type of poetry in a little bit more detail.

Here are seven fragments of sentences, which relate to the seven statements, the true or false statements that we were doing in the previous task, or sorry, looking at in the previous task.

So I would like you to now make these into complete sentences using your own words and making sure you're still focusing on the concept of poetry and what poetry is.

Now, it really, really would be good to try use your own words as I just said, but if you're struggling a little bit, then you can steal some words from earlier on in the lesson.

But try and do at least a few in completely your own words.

And if you'd like to challenge yourself, you can turn them into longer sentences, extend them, do more than one sentence for each one, or even turn it into a paragraph.

So once you're ready, pause the video, write these sentences out info and then come back when you're finished.

Welcome back.

I hope you've got some really beautiful sentences, maybe even a paragraph written out now, all about the idea of poetry and what poetry is.

We've said we can't define it for sure, but we can certainly have a go, so I hope you've done that today.

You can share those with us later on, so look out for how to do that at the end of the lesson.

Okay, so in this unit of work, we're going to be looking at a particular form of poetry, not just all poems because that will be far too much for this short unit, but a specific kind.

And I wonder if you may have heard of this kind of poetry before.

So here's a little clue.

Now, some of the letters are obviously missing.

Do you know what this form of poetry is? Can you figure it out? I'll give you a little moment to think and I reveal another letter.

You got it yet? And one more, I'm sure you've got it by now, and the last one, so that's it.

The form of poetry we're looking at today is the sonnet.

Did you get it right? I hope he did, I'm sure you've heard of them before but if you are sitting here thinking, oh goodness, I'm not quite sur, I don't know if I know what they are.

I don't know if I quite remember, it feels like ages since I last talked about sonnets or heard about sonnets in a lesson, do not panic, we're going to go through what's sonnets are right now.

So a good place to start as with any form of literature or poetry or whatever it might be that we're studying in English, a good place to start is always with a little bit of historical context.

And finding out when these poems were written, who wrote them? When were they first around? Where did they originate? et cetera.

So let's have a look through together.

History of the sonnet.

Sonnets are traditionally about love, but poets have used sonnets to express their thoughts and feelings about many subjects, such as religion, politics and nature.

Sonnets originated in Italy in the 13th century, since the 1200's, and the most famous writer of Italian style sonnets was Petrarch, who wrote about an idealised version of love.

And here we have a lovely painting of Petrarch.

In the 16th century, the 1500s, probably the most famous writer of all started writing sonnets, that's William Shakespeare.

And his sonnets focused on many different aspects of love, such as jealousy, lust and admiration.

Here is a painting of William Shakespeare.

Petrarchan and Shakespearean sonnets share many similarities.

However, Shakespeare made some changes to the structure and rhyme scheme that make his sonnets slightly different to Petrarch's.

Sonnets went out of fashion for a while, but then writers such as William Wordsworth started writing them again.

And Wordsworth wrote about the power and the beauty of nature, rather than the more common theme of love in the previous sonnets.

And sonnets were also popular with writers in the Victorian era, such as Elizabeth Barrett-Browning.

Victorian sonnets expand greatly on the usual topic of love and they cover many themes, such as social class, women's rights and slavery.

And here we have a painting of Elizabeth Barrett-Browning.

And sonnets continue to still be used by modern poets up until this present day, ever so popular still.

And this just shows their appealing quality and how much impact they've had on the world of poetry.

So we've just taken in a lot of information about the history of sonnets there.

So now's a good time to take a moment to reflect.

And there's three statements on the screen, and I would like you, as soon as I finished explaining to pause the video and to write down those three statements.

Now, I know it's tempting just to think, oh, it doesn't really matter, I'm just copying them down, but please do pause and copy them down because things do stay in your brain much better if you actually write them down rather than just reading them.

So pause the video, write those three statements down and then come back when you're ready.

Okay, well done everybody.

So we have the one last thing to do now before we move on to the quiz, and that's to have a look at the features of a sonnet.

We've looked at the history, so now we're going to consider the features.

This is Sonnet 130, which is a sonnet written by Shakespeare.

And as you can see, several features of the sonnet are now labelled.

If you look to the left where the green is and the numbers 1 to 14, that is the number of lines.

And there are always 14 lines in a sonnet without exception.

Now, over on the right hand side in the line purple-y colour, where you can see A, B A, B, C, D, C, D, E, F, E, F, and G, G.

I'm sure you already know that's the rhyme scheme.

And Shakespeare's rhyme scheme for his sonnets, it's different to Petrarchan sonnets as we said previously when we were looking at the history of sonnets, and we'll go into this in greater detail in lesson number two.

Now, looking at the pink, the three pink braces, you can see there are three in total and within each of those braces, there are four lines.

So you have A, B, A, B four lines, C, D, C, D, four lines E, F, E, F four lines, and each of those stanzas collected together four lines equals one quatrain.

So each quatrain is four lines, quarter, four.

So three stanzas of four lines long each.

Then at the bottom, you'll see there's G, G, that's our rhyme scheme, the letters.

And then the blue brace is showing us that this isn't a quatrain this time, 'cause there's only two lines there.

Think of words that could mean two, and you've got rhyming couplet couple, as in two.

And you can see obviously the end of both of those lines rhyme.

Now, if you're looking at that and you're thinking, oh miss, that's a bit much, I'm not quite sure, don't worry.

You don't need to know exactly how this works yet or be able to recall it all from memory instantly, I just wanted you to see that there is a very strict rhyme scheme, and pattern, and structure to sonnets.

So in our next lesson, we'll actually look at this in a lot more detail, and in fact, we'll be looking at even more features of a sonnet in lesson two.

So I look forward to going through those with you then.

Well done everybody.

You've made it to the end of the lesson, fantastic.

You've just got one little thing left to do, which is to complete your quiz on lesson one, "Introduction to Sonnets." And also, if you're feeling really proud of the work that you've produced today, remember you can actually share that work as well.

And the details of how to do that are on the screen at the moment.

So enjoy your quiz, enjoy any more lessons that you're doing today, and I can't wait to see you next time for lesson number two, "Introduction to Sonnets.".