Both Uses of
sonnet
in
Much Ado About Nothing
- Will you then write me a sonnet in praise of my beauty?†
Scene 5.2 *
- And I'll be sworn upon 't that he loves her; For here's a paper written in his hand, A halting sonnet of his own pure brain, Fashion'd to Beatrice.†
Scene 5.4
Definition:
a poem consisting of 14 lines with a fixed rhyme scheme
As an example, here is Shakespeare's 17th Sonnet:
Who will believe my verse in time to come,
If it were fill'd with your most high deserts?
Though yet, heaven knows, it is but as a tomb
Which hides your life and shows not half your parts.
If I could write the beauty of your eyes
And in fresh numbers number all your graces,
The age to come would say 'This poet lies:
Such heavenly touches ne'er touch'd earthly faces.'
So should my papers yellow'd with their age
Be scorn'd like old men of less truth than tongue,
And your true rights be term'd a poet's rage
And stretched meter of an antique song:
But were some child of yours alive that time,
You should live twice; in it and in my rhyme.
Who will believe my verse in time to come,
If it were fill'd with your most high deserts?
Though yet, heaven knows, it is but as a tomb
Which hides your life and shows not half your parts.
If I could write the beauty of your eyes
And in fresh numbers number all your graces,
The age to come would say 'This poet lies:
Such heavenly touches ne'er touch'd earthly faces.'
So should my papers yellow'd with their age
Be scorn'd like old men of less truth than tongue,
And your true rights be term'd a poet's rage
And stretched meter of an antique song:
But were some child of yours alive that time,
You should live twice; in it and in my rhyme.