National Endowment for the Humanities
Neh: Edsit Ement: Sounds of the Sonnet
"Sound Experiments" drive this lesson plan. Sonnet analysis is accompanied by readings based on specific emotions. At this website, there are several links full-text sonnets by such authors as Shakespeare, Lord Byron, Longfellow, and...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Neh: Edsit Ement: Sounds of the Sonnet
This resource presents a activity in which students learn to study the form, sounds, and meanings of sonnets (particularly those by Shakespeare) in an interesting and interactive way.
TES Global
Tes: Teaching Shakespeare: The Tempest
[Free Registration/Login Required] This is a comprehensive lesson plan for teaching The Tempest including information about Elizabethan Theatre, the play, the theme of power and hierarchy, the setting, the characters, figurative...
TES Global
Tes: Romeo & Juliet 2008 Teacher Pack (Language)
[Free Registration/Login Required] This resource pack supports Royal Shakespeare Company's 2008 production of Romeo & Juliet but is appropriate for other versions as well. It focuses on Shakespeare's language: rhythm and word choice,...
Other
University of Northern Iowa: Blank Verse
Very clear and detailed explanation of blank verse, including related terms such as iambic pentameter and other forms of meter in poetry. Also includes a "How to and Examples," section that discusses the difficulties of writing in blank...
Other
Cummings Study Guides: How Shakespeare Prepared Manuscripts
Learn many of the elements which Shakespeare used, or took into consideration, as he wrote the original manuscripts of his plays. How did he shape the English language with new words, how did he evoke settings when plays used few or no...
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: The Heroic Couplet: Its Rhyme and Reason
Lengthy academic essay that argues that traditional poetry, including the heroic couplet, is still relevant in the modern world. While this is discussed, the history of the heroic couplet is provided. A good definition of the term with...
PBS
Pbs: Language Arts: Lesson Plans: Language Arts: Shakespeare's Sonnets
The purpose of this instructional activity is to help students cope with unfamiliar language in Shakespeare's sonnets and to help them understand and appreciate both what he says and how he says it.
Folger Shakespeare Library
Folger Shakespeare Library: Pause, What Did You Say?
Students will analyze ambiguity in Shakespeare's meter using imperfect iambic pentameter lines from Julius Caesar 1.2.1-71. Students will evaluate how the lines reveal character motivation.
Online Writing Lab at Purdue University
Purdue University Owl: Meter & Scansion
Handout from the Purdue University writing lab that explains poetic meter and scansion. Explains several terms, including the following: syllabic, accentual, accentual-syllabic, quantitative, scansion, accented, unaccented, poetic foot,...
TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: Why Shakespeare Loved Iambic Pentameter
Shakespeare sometimes gets a bad rap in high schools for his complex plots and antiquated language. But a quick peek into the rhythm of his words reveals a poet deeply rooted in the way people spoke in his time- and still speak today....
Encyclopedia Britannica
Encyclopedia Britannica: Guide to Shakespeare:blank Verse
This discussion of blank verse is taken from a larger article on Shakespeare and the Globe Theater. It defines the term and discusses its importance in the history of British poetry.
Rutgers University
Rutgers University: Glossary of Literary and Rhetorical Terms: Heroic Couplets
A short definition of the term Heroic Couplet along with a short example from a piece of poetry from Pope's Essay on Criticism.
Alabama Learning Exchange
Alex: The Craft of Poetry: Structure of the Sonnet
Using a sonnnet grid, students write original Shakespearean sonnets and present them in digital slideshow format.
Wikimedia
Wikipedia: Iambic Pentameter
This encyclopedia entry for iambic pentameter provides examples of poetry and explanations of the meter's purpose.
Other
Rgs: Rhythm, Meter, and Scansion Made Easy
This page was created by a 5th and 6th-grade teacher "As a quick reference for [his] students when studying rhythm," although older students could easily use it too. The following terms are defined: rhythm, meter, scansion, iamb,...
University of Victoria (Canada)
The U Vic Writer's Guide: Literary Term: Blank Verse
This brief site provides a definition of the term blank verse, a short description of its history, and an example of its use from a poem.
University of Victoria (Canada)
The U Vic Writer's Guide: Literary Term: Heroic Couplet
This site provides a short definition of the term Heroic Couplet along with a short example from a piece of poetry by Pope.