The other day, my students were having trouble discerning Spenserian and Shakespearean sonnets. First, let me be honest, when I read the above sentence, I almost can't believe it. We've gotten much farther this year than I expected we would. Anyway, a little background...
Both the Spenserian and Shakespearean sonnets are organized in quatrains with a rhyming couplet at the end. The Spenserian sonnet rhymes abab bcbc cdcd ee. The Shakespearean sonnet rhymes abab cdcd efef gg. You can see how the two could be easily confused. One types carries a rhyme through to the next quatrain, thus linking them more closely. But both have that all-important end couplet that resolves, restates, or redefines the central problem of the sonnet.
This is what I came up with on the fly. First I asked, "Who is the O.G. of poetry?" [O.G. = Original Gangsta'] The students replied, "Shakespeare, duh!" "Well," I said, "the O.G. uses the gg! That's how you can remember!"
Were they laughing at me or do they just think I'm that cool? Either way, I bet they'll always remember who uses the gg.
Shakespeare...OG!
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