Read the information about Shakespearean sonnets and complete the tasks below.

William Shakespeare is known to be the author of 154 sonnets, a special form of a poem that expresses the author's ideas and thoughts. A sonnet has fourteen lines and is written in iambic pentameter.

Iambic pentameter is a type of poetry structure that refers to the number of weak and stressed syllables in each line.

Shakespearean sonnets have the following rhyming pattern: ABAB CDCD EFEF GG, which means that every second line rhymes with the next one, and the last two lines rhyme with each other.

Complete Shakespeare's Sonnet 27 with the lines below.

Write one letter in each gap.

Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed,

The dear repose for limbs with travel tired;

But then begins a journey in my head,

[ ]

For then my thoughts (from far where I abide)

Intend a zealous pilgrimage to thee,

[ ]

Looking on darkness which the blind do see:

Save that my soul's imaginary sight

[ ]

Which, like a jewel hung in ghastly night,

Makes black night beauteous and her old face new.

Lo, thus, by day my limbs, by night my mind,

[ ]

A. Presents thy shadow to my sightless view,

B. And keep my drooping eyelids open wide,

C. For thee, and for myself, no quiet find.

D. To work my mind, when body's work's expired:

Choose the sentence that describes the author's idea best.

Tick the correct answer.

• When I go to bed in the evening, my imagination starts to work hard.
• Travelling makes me so tired that I can't move or think.
• The night is the time when you can see darkness and scary shadows.
• I'm blind (I cannot see), so I feel comfortable at night.