Lesson video

In progress...

Hi, welcome to today's English lesson.

This is lesson two on the series of lessons on Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare.

And on today's lesson, we're going to be studying the language that William Shakespeare uses throughout Sonnet 18.

But before we start here, let's make sure you've got a pen and paper with you, something else to write with or something to write on, and to make sure that any notifications or apps you might have running in the background are turned off so that all your focus is on the lesson in front of you.

Take a moment now to pause the video and make sure you've done that.

Okay, let's get on with our lesson then.

So quick recap on what we know so far about sonnets.

The Shakespearean sonnet is one of the most common and well-known form of the sonnet.

A sonnet is a fourteen line poem that usually has ten syllables in a line.

Shakespearean sonnets follow an ABAB rhyme structure and end with a rhyming couplet.

All of this we learned about in previous lessons on Sonnet 18, and if you want to recap your learning on that, feel free to stop this video at the moment and go back to the prior video.

Shakespearean sonnets follow the poetic metre known as iambic pentameter.

The theme of a Shakespearean sonnet is often, an almost always, love.

The speaker in Sonnet 18 is most likely addressing a young man that the speaker desires.

Let's take a moment now to check your learning.

In a second I'm going to ask you to pause the video and you're going to complete the three sentences on the screen below, adding those missing words from the gaps there.

So pause the video now and copy and complete those sentences.

Okay.

Hopefully you didn't find that too challenging.

Let's see how you got on.

Sentence one: Shakespearean sonnets use the poetic metre of iambic pentameter.

That's five sets of paired beats to a line.

Sentence two: Shakespearean sonnets follow an ABAB rhyme structure and end with a rhyming couplet.

That's twelve lines where the first and third and second and fourth line rhyme, and so on, and the last two lines are a romantic or rhyming couplet.

Sentence three: Shakespearean sonnets are usually about the theme of love.

In fact, the sonnets always address love, although as we discussed in a previous lesson, in the later sonnets addressed to the Dark Lady, there is a hint of hatred within those sonnets at the same time.

Let's take a closer look now at the sonnet that we discovered last lesson, Sonnet 18.

"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer's lease hath all to short a date; Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimm'd; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd; But thy eternal summer shall not fade, Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st; Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st: So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee." As you can see there, we follow that fourteen line poem that a sonnet expects to see.

The first twelve of these lines, three quatrains, three groups of four lines that follow an ABAB rhyme scheme, and that final paired rhyming couplet or romantic couplet that explains to us the coming together of the two lovers.

As we can see there, we follow an ABAB rhyme structure followed by that GG that we see in the romantic couplet.

Let's discuss Shakespeare's language and ideas now.

Shakespeare conveys the speakers love in Sonnet 18 through figurative language.

Figurative language is when an image is used beyond its literal sense.

Figurative language.

Figurative language is when a phrase goes beyond the literal meaning of words to get a message or point across.

Common examples of this are similes and metaphors.

"He is a couch potato," that famous metaphor, where we see here we're not actually referring to somebody as a potato that sits on a couch, but they are very similar to that sort of idea of being a potato.

Similarly, we see a simile.

"She ran like the wind." Here we see the explanation of someone who's running so fast that they are almost as fast as the wind, or as fast as the wind.

And here we use the figurative language of a simile.

"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate" Here we see the famous opening two lines of Sonnet 18.

"More love and more temperate." This is the comparison that Shakespeare is making here.

He has his speaker make a comparison to the subject of the poem, the object of the speaker's love, his young man and he compares him to a summer's day.

However, he's not just comparing him.

He's actually saying his is better, he is more lovely and more temperate.

Here we see this incredibly well-known simile.

Simile being a word or phrase used to describe something as being like or as something else.

We've explored similes in previous lessons and I'm sure you remember it, but just to recap your learning, a simile could be "the man was as tall as a tower," when you describe a man as being as tall as a tower, his comparison is to a tower, the height of the tower, not actually being a tower himself.

Or "the knight was as brave as a lion," the knight's bravery being compared to that of a lion, not the knight being a lion himself.

Here we see the subject of the poem, the lover, being compared to a summer's day.

"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate." First, we see that a summer's day is beautiful and pleasant.

A summer's day is lovely.

We see that a summer's day is comfortable to enjoy time in, it is enjoyable to spend time on a summer's day.

And we see that the speaker here is suggesting that the young man is more beautiful and more pleasant company than a summer's day is.

The man is more pleasant to be around and more beautiful and generally better than a summer's day.

Let's remind ourselves again now of Sonnet 18 and see if we can see how Shakespeare uses the language of love to present his feelings for the young man.

"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer's lease hath all too short a date; Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimm'd; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd; But they eternal summer shall not fade, Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st; Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st: So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee." "And every fair from fair sometimes declines, By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd; But thy eternal summer shall not fade." Here we see in that last line another example of figurative language.

"But thy eternal summer shall not fade." In this case, it's a metaphor: a word or phrase used to describe something as if it were something else.

While a simile earlier describes something as being like something else, a metaphor describes it as actually being that alternative thing.

"The world is your oyster." Indeed in this particular case, the world is not actually a giant mollusk.

But it is something that you can open and enjoy and get the best from.

"He ruled with an iron fist." Now it's unlikely unless it's a Marvel superhero that there is not someone ruling with an actual iron fist; however, it refers to the personality and the traits and the strength of that person in the way that they rule a country or a nation.

In this case, "but thy eternal summer shall not fade," we see that a summer's day is beautiful, pleasant, and comfortable.

We already established this early on.

However, we also see that a summer's day will end.

A summer's day is fleeting.

The speaker suggest here that unlike the fleeting summer, the young man's beauty will last forever.

"But thy eternal summer shall not fade," your eternal summer will never fade.

Here we meet the word eternal.

The word eternal means having no beginning and no end in time.

Shakespeare's love for his young man is eternal.

"When will his eternal whining stop?" "I will be eternally grateful for your help." The word here is eternal, meaning ongoing.

Let's take a moment to check our understanding.

In a second I'm going to ask you to pause the video and you're going to complete these three sentences by filling in the gaps.

Please copy out all three sentences and complete those missing words in those gaps.

Pause the video now and complete the three sentences.

Okay, excellent work.

Let's see how you did there.

Sentence one: The speaker in Sonnet 18 suggests that summer is beautiful and comfortable to be around.

Sentence two: Through the use of figurative language, the speaker implies that the young man is more beautiful and better to be around than a summer's day.

And sentence three: Eternal means to be without beginning or end.

Just like the young man's beauty, it will be around forever.

Congratulations if you did well there and got all three.

If you didn't you can always go back to our earlier parts of the video and just recap your learning.

Let's take a closer look now at that language associated with the comparison with summer.

Shakespeare uses the term "eternal summer" to compare to the young man or the subject of the poem.

What do we associate with summer? Sunshine, pleasant weather, fun activities, and beautiful scenery.

These are all positive aspects that we associate with summer, making us establish that the comparison to summer is a positive one.

However at the same time, Shakespeare also shows that there are negative aspects to summer.

"Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer's lease hath all too short a date; Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines." And think about what are the negative aspects of summer that are being presented here.

We see Shakespeare present some of the problems of summer.

It's too windy, it's too hot, and it's too short.

All of these suggest one thing, and that is despite what we may think about summer, it is imperfect.

It is beautiful and it is great, but at the same time it's fleeting, it can be uncomfortable, and sometimes it can be unpleasant.

What does Shakespeare say about summer? In a second, pause the video and choose one of these options to answer your question.

Is it option one: Summer is beautiful and perfect? Is it option two: Summer is almost perfect? Is it option three: Some summers are better than other summers? Or is it option four: Summer is beautiful but imperfect.

Pause the video now and make your selection.

Okay, good effort there.

Let's see which one you've chosen.

The answer was of course option four, what does Shakespeare say about summer? He presents summer as being beautiful but imperfect.

We're going to think about annotating language now within our poem.

What I'd like you to do is copy out the sentence below and annotate the words in bold in the quotation below.

We're going to do the first one for you to make it easy.

Our first sentence is "But thy eternal summer shall not fade." And we're looking at the words "shall not fade." The annotation, which is easy enough, the little arrow shooting off it, shows that something shall not fade, it will not lose strength.

So by the term shall not fade, we see that the eternal summer will not lose its strength.

Your turn now.

In a second I'm going to ask you to pause the video, and in this particular sentence, "but thy eternal summer shall not fade," I want you to annotate the word summer, tell me what it means in context of this sentence.

Pause the video now.

Okay, let's see how you got on there.

The idea was that summer is representation of a beautiful time, a lovely opportunity of enjoyment.

So by "thy eternal summer shall not fade," the lovely time, the beauty will not lose strength.

Okay, last chance at this now.

I want you to pause the video in a second and annotate the word eternal.

Tell me what you understand by the word eternal.

Pause the video now.

Okay, let's see how you got on with that one.

So the word eternal meaning without beginning or end.

So here we have the sentence "but thy eternal summer shall not fade" and we now know that what it means is that the time period that has no beginning or end, a lovely, beautiful time period, will never fade.

The beauty of the young man will last forever and will never fade, unlike summer.

If you managed to get all of those and get a good job at annotating those sentences, then feel free to move on from here.

If you're still struggling a little bit, I would copy out that sentence now and make sure you get those key words in there so you fully understand what is happening with those sentences.

Time to check your learning now please.

What does Shakespeare believe is eternal? In a second you're going to pause the video and decide which of these four option answers that question.

Is it option one: Shakespeare believes summer is eternal? Is it option two: Shakespeare believes his lover's beauty is eternal? Is it option three: Shakespeare believes the heat of summer is eternal? Or is it option four: Shakespeare believes the rough winds of summer are eternal? Pause the video now and make your selection.

Okay, let's see how you got on with that one.

It was of course option two.

Shakespeare here believes that his lover's beauty is eternal, unlike summer.

Okay, you've worked incredibly hard here then today so let's move on to our final and main activity.

In a second you're going to move on to the next slide and pause the video.

Read that slide carefully and complete the sorting activity you see there.

So, in a moment you're going to pause the video and copy the sentences you see in the middle column into either the summer column on the left, the speaker's lover column on the right, or the subject of the poem on the right, or in some cases, both.

So in the middle column we have the terms imperfect, short lived, beautiful, comfortable to be around, and perfect.

You need to decide whether each of those statements fits as a description of summer or fits as the speaker's lover, or fits as both.

Pause the video now and put them in the correct column.

Okay, that was a challenging one then there so let's so how you got on.

What we see here is that summer is presented as imperfect.

Imperfect goes into the summer column.

Summer is also presented as being short lived, so short lived also goes into the summer column.

However when we look at the concept of being beautiful, the whole purpose of this piece is that both summer and the speaker are presented as being beautiful.

It's the whole reason why the speaker is compared to summer.

Equally the idea of summer being temperate, being comfortable to be around and be involved with, also goes with both summer and the speaker's lover.

Both are pleasant to be around.

However while summer was presented as being imperfect at the top, the speaker's lover is the only one to be discussed as being perfect.

Hopefully you got all of those, if you didn't you can always go back to earlier in the video and recap your learning and have another go.

Challenge question now then.

So this is going to be for after the end of the video when you're recapping your learning.

I want you to give some thought to the following question.

Why does the speaker in Sonnet 18 compare his lover to a summer's day? In your answers you should consider the following key things.

What the speaker says about summer.

How the speaker uses figurative language.

And what this implies about the speaker's lover.

Have a go at this at the end of the video and give some real thought to the purpose of Shakespeare comparing the lover to a summer's day.

Best of luck with that.

Okay, we've reached the end of our video now and today's English lesson.

This has been the second lesson on Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare looking particularly at the language in Sonnet 18 and you've worked ever so hard and I'm very impressed by all the effort you've put in.

Once this video ends, I want you to make sure that you review your learning.

Now there's a couple of key things you can do to help you with that.

Firstly, go back and look through your notes to find a decent, new piece of vocabulary, something you've learnt new from today that you didn't know before, and make sure that you readdress that and go back and recap those new terms so you really understand that new vocab.

Secondly, look at the key learning from today's lesson.

So go back through, make a list of two or three key points that we've learnt today about the language used in Sonnet 18, and just go back and recap those and make sure you've really got them drilled home and you remember them ready for next lesson.

And lastly, don't forget to complete those exercises, particularly that challenge exercise that will really help you to recap and embed that knowledge and learning.

Okay, I'll see you next time with English Lesson 3 on Sonnet 18 where we'll be looking at the structure of Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 but until then, best of luck, and bye for now.

I've finished the video