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Preassessment Renaissance Sonnets

Last updated over 1 year ago
5 questions
Answer the open questions: be complete but concise.
Sonnet 30 - William Shakespeare

When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
I summon up remembrance of things past,
I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,
And with old woes new wail my dear time’s waste:
Then can I drown an eye, unused to flow,
For precious friends hid in death’s dateless night,
And weep afresh love’s long since cancell’d woe,
And moan the expense of many a vanish’d sight:
Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,
And heavily from woe to woe tell o’er
The sad account of fore-bemoaned moan,
Which I new pay as if not paid before.
But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,
All losses are restor’d and sorrows end.
Required
3

Explain the rhyme scheme (1 pt) and metre (1 pt) of the poem, and identify what type of sonnet it is (1 pt)

Required
4

Identify a metaphor in this part of the poem (1 pts) and explain its meaning (3 pts):

"Then can I drown an eye, unused to flow, // For precious friends hid in death’s dateless night, // And weep afresh love’s long since cancell’d woe,"

Required
4

Identify the volta or turn in the sonnet (1 pts) and explain the thematic shift it creates (3 pts)

Required
5

How does the writer emphasise the theme of sorrow and regret in the sonnet? Provide an example (2 pts) and explain (3 pts).

Required
6

Discuss the sonnet's motif of memory and recollection by giving a relevant example (2 pts) and explaining it (4 pts).