Graphic Organizer for Writing About Theme Name: Sonnet 71 Theme Key
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Graphic Organizer for Writing about Theme Name: Sonnet 71 Theme Key
Poem title: ____Sonnet 71______Author: _____William Shakespeare______
These are only some of the potential answers. Students may come up with many other examples of support for this theme. Other themes will still rely on many of the same or similar examples of textual evidence as well.
1. What is the theme of this poem? Remember that theme is more than subject matter or topic. It is the message about that subject which the author conveys through the text. Themes are universal, meaning that they speak to humanity in general and apply to more than just the immediate situation presented in the literature.
The theme of Sonnet 71 is that we can’t let grief over the loss of a deceased loved one isolate us from the living.
2. How do you know that this is the theme? What evidence do you have in the form of quotes from the text to prove that this is the theme? You need at least three pieces of evidence and at least one of them must include the use of a poetic or sound device that contributes to communicating the theme. Then you must explain each piece of evidence.
a. Quote or paraphrase from the text and line number? Line # ____12-14_____
But let your love e’en with my life decay;/ Lest the wise world should look into your moan,/ And mock you with me after I am gone
What does this quote mean? Say it in your own words.
These crucial lines, which appear right at the shift into the heroic couplet, advise the reader to let her Love break down to nothing so that the people living in the world will not reject her for being morose.
Explain how does this support the theme you claimed in #1? The “mocking” and rejection described in lines 12-14 are the pitfalls that Shakespeare is advising us all to avert by writing a poem with this theme. b. Quote or paraphrase from the text and line number? Line # _____1-4______
No longer mourn for me when I am dead/Than you shall hear the surly, sullen bell/Give warning to the world that I am fled/From this vile world with vilest worms to dwell.
What does this quote mean? Say it in your own words. ______The speaker is telling the reader that once the church bell that signals his death stops ringing, she should stop grieving.
Explain how does this support the theme you claimed in #1?
This supports the theme because a person who wishes to heed Shakespeare’s message about not letting grief isolate the bereaved cannot hesitate to stop grieving, and according to lines 1-4, it seems, the sooner the better.
c. Quote or paraphrase from the text and line number? Line # ____6-8______
. . . I love you so/ That I in your sweet thoughts would be forgot,/If thinking on me then should make you woe.
What does this quote mean? Say it in your own words.
Here the speaker is saying that if remembering him causes the reader sorrow, he would rather be forgotten because he loves her so much.
Explain how does this support the theme you claimed in #1?
If you love someone, you would not want to see them isolated from the world or the approval and company of other people, especially if you were the reason why they withdrew into sorrow. The situation described in lines 6-8 begs the question of how to avoid this fate, and the poem’s theme provides the solution.
d. Quote or paraphrase from the text and line number? Line # ____1-14_____ Some of the words emphasized by beginning where stressed syllables fall in the iambic pentameter are: mourn, dead, bell, warning, world, fled, vilest, worms, dwell, read, line, hand, writ, love, thoughts, thinking, woe, look, verse, clay, name, let, love, life, world, look, moan, mock, with, after, I, gone
What does this quote mean? Say it in your own words.
Many of these words invoke images of death, burial, suffering, and departure
Explain how does this support the theme you claimed in #1? These words not only create a morbid mood, but they also match the key words in the theme: grief, loss, deceased, loved, isolate. The stressed words/syllables underscore the language of Shakespeare’s theme.
e. Quote or paraphrase from the text and line number? Line # ____7_____
The use of assonance in the phrase “ th ough ts would be forg o t” emphasizes these words.
What does this quote mean? Say it in your own words.
The phrase could translate captures the idea that recollections would not be remembered.
Explain how does this support the theme you claimed in #1? The phrase concisely captures the advice of the theme. The speaker wishes for the reader to forget him so she can go on living happily as part of the world.