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A. Choose any sonnet 22, 26, 31, 33-36, 40-43, 48, 52, 57-58, 68, 93, 95, 106, 126
B. In your first paragraph, analyze the poem’s first quatrain (four lines). Explain how the first quatrain sets up the situation or problem that the sonnet will explore. Explain what the speaker is saying or arguing and how he says it. In other words, how does he use metaphors, “juicy” words (words that convey powerful feelings or values, like “loathsome canker”), imagery, patterns of words, rhetorical devices (such as antithesis, oxymoron, or others you might know), to convey a particular claim or argument?
C. In your second paragraph, analyze the poem’s second quatrain. How does the second quatrain develop the description, problem, or argument of the first quatrain? Are there repeated words, metaphors, images, etc.? Are the dominant metaphors or images of the first quatrain further developed or does the speaker move on to new ones? If he does move on to new ones, how are the new ones related to the former ones?
D. In your third paragraph, analyze the poem’s third quatrain. How does the third quatrain develop the description, problem, or argument of the first and second quatrains? If the poem you chose uses the 12 + 2 structure, the third quatrain functions by providing a final illustration or statement of the issue explored in the first two quatrains. If the poem you chose uses the 8 + 6 structure, the third quatrain should show a significant change of direction, as it introduces the concluding thoughts of the sonnet.
E. In your fourth paragraph, analyze the couplet of the poem. Whether your sonnet uses the 12 + 2 structure or the 8 + 6 structure, the couplet always functions as the final statement or conclusion of the thing being described or the problem being explored. Explain how the couplet of your sonnet serves to draw a conclusion or make a final statement about the significance of what the sonnet has discussed. Sometimes you can even read the two final rhyme words of the couplet as a compact summary of the speaker’s purpose or argument. For instance, the final rhyme words of Sonnet 15 are “you” and “new,” of Sonnet 7 are “noon” and “son,” and of Sonnet 2 are “old” and “cold.” Often the couplet uses important words from earlier in the poem: is that the case in your sonnet? Sometimes the couplet uses antithesis (“sweet thief”/“sourly robs” in Sonnet 35, “false art”/“beauty” in Sonnet 68). So when analyzing the couplet, pay particular attention to any verbal patterns, juicy words, or rhetorical devices that give these compact lines their impact.
F. In your fifth paragraph, contextualize your sonnet in the larger sequence by briefly comparing it to another sonnet of your choice. For example, if you chose to analyze Sonnet 1, you can compare it to the following sonnet, Sonnet 2; or if you chose Sonnet 11, you can compare it to Sonnet 20, which also uses a personification of Nature. You don’t have to do a detailed analysis of the second sonnet; simply explain how the two sonnets treat the same issue or problem, and how they do so differently.

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