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 55 with the lines below.

Write one letter in each gap.

Not marble nor the gilded monuments

Of princes shall outlive this powerful rhyme,

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Than unswept stone besmeared with sluttish time.

When wasteful war shall statues overturn,

And broils root out the work of masonry,

[ ]

The living record of your memory.

'Gainst death and all-oblivious enmity

Shall you pace forth; your praise shall still find room

Even in the eyes of all posterity

[ ]

So, till the Judgement that yourself arise,

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A. Nor Mars his sword nor war's quick fire shall burn

B. You live in this, and dwell in lovers' eyes.

C. That wear this world out to the ending doom.

D. But you shall shine more bright in these contents

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

Tick the correct answer.

• All buildings and cities will be destroyed in time.
• Nothing will outlive my poetry and the way it immortalises you.
• I will remember you until I die.
• One day, you will rise again and inspire us with your beauty.