Shakespeare's Sonnets
Explore resources related to William Shakespeare’s Sonnets.
Overview
Few collections of poems—indeed, few literary works in general—intrigue, challenge, tantalize, and reward as do Shakespeare’s Sonnets. Almost all of them love poems, the Sonnets philosophize, celebrate, attack, plead, and express pain, longing, and despair, all in a tone of voice that rarely rises above a reflective murmur, all spoken as if in an inner monologue or dialogue, and all within the tight structure of the English sonnet form.
Most Popular Resources
Sonnets & Social Justice
Sonnets & Social Justice
Explore Shakespeare’s sonnets, along with more modern sonnets, and engage students in their analysis of sonnets, social justice, and race. This professional development was recorded February 23, 2023 at 8PM ET.
Sonnet Performances: Shakespeare’s Sonnets as Scripts
Sonnet Performances: Shakespeare’s Sonnets as Scripts
Let Shakespeare do the teaching as students read, edit, and perform Shakespearean sonnets all with minimal help from the teacher
Free resource
Shakespeare’s Sisters and Modern Sonnets
Shakespeare’s Sisters and Modern Sonnets
Have students discover the many kinds of sonnets that are being written today addressing familiar themes in contemporary language.
Free resource
Lesson Plans
Sonnet Performances: Shakespeare’s Sonnets as Scripts
Sonnet Performances: Shakespeare’s Sonnets as Scripts
Let Shakespeare do the teaching as students read, edit, and perform Shakespearean sonnets all with minimal help from the teacher
Free resource
Shakespeare’s Sisters and Modern Sonnets
Shakespeare’s Sisters and Modern Sonnets
Have students discover the many kinds of sonnets that are being written today addressing familiar themes in contemporary language.
Free resource
Spenser, Shakespeare, and the Blazon
Spenser, Shakespeare, and the Blazon
Students will read and respond to a Shakespearean sonnet and gain new insights into Shakespeare’s originality, wit, and humor
Free resource
Easing into Shakespeare with Edna St. Vincent Millay’s, “What My Lips Have Kissed, And Where And Why”
Easing into Shakespeare with Edna St. Vincent Millay’s, “What My Lips Have Kissed, And Where And Why”
Introduce students to both a classic form of the sonnet and to one of its most recurrent and popular themes, lost love.
Free resource
Professional Development
Sonnets & Social Justice
Sonnets & Social Justice
Explore Shakespeare’s sonnets, along with more modern sonnets, and engage students in their analysis of sonnets, social justice, and race. This professional development was recorded February 23, 2023 at 8PM ET.
Juicy Lesson! Choral Reading Imtiaz Dharker’s “The Trick” and Shakespeare’s Sonnet 43
Juicy Lesson! Choral Reading Imtiaz Dharker’s “The Trick” and Shakespeare’s Sonnet 43
Learn how to let these two poems talk to each other—and how to get your students talking back to both of them. Walk through the what, how, and why of this paired text lesson with the teachers who created it: Dr. Deborah Gascon and Corinne Viglietta.
Shakespeare Sonnets in the Classroom
Shakespeare Sonnets in the Classroom
Why–and how–should students read Shakespeare’s sonnets in class?
Free resource