Never think you have read a sonnet if you have read it only once.  Sonnets demand careful, concentrated attention.  The best way to get to know a sonnet is to memorize it, and as a result I am giving you this opportunity for extra credit: You may memorize any sonnet we have not discussed in class (preferably a Shakespearean sonnet, though it can also be a sonnet by one of the other Elizabethan sonneteers). You then may come to my office and recite it to me any time before the end of the semester.  Expect that I will ask you a few questions about your interpretation of the sonnet.

Visit
Sonnet Central
for a storehouse of information on the sonnet

The sonnet embedded in Romeo and Juliet

Petrarchan conventions