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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

Teaching Resource

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

Teaching Resource

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

Teaching Resource

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

Sonnet Performances: Shakespeare’s Sonnets as Scripts

Teaching Resource

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

Teaching Resource

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

Teaching Resource

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”

Teaching Resource

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

Sonnets & Social Justice

Teaching Resource

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

Teaching Resource

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

Teaching Resource

Shakespeare Sonnets in the Classroom

Why–and how–should students read Shakespeare’s sonnets in class?

Free resource