🔍 Craft & Structure: Literature: Sonnet 18 (Grade 12)

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Read closely. Think about how the author wrote it.

Sonnet 18 — William Shakespeare (public domain)

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date;

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;

But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Vocabulary: temperate — determine its meaning from context: ________________

1. Identify the point of view. How does it shape what the reader knows?

2. Identify a literary device (figurative language, imagery, symbolism). Explain its effect on meaning or tone.

3. How does the structure (order of events, pacing, turning point) contribute to the meaning?

4. Analyze how a specific word choice affects tone.

Answer key: first-person speaker addressing "thee"; device: extended comparison; personification of the sun and Death; volta at line 9; structure: Shakespearean sonnet: three quatrains and a couplet, iambic pentameter, ABAB CDCD EFEF GG · temperate = mild; not extreme

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Worksheets › Grade 12 English › Craft & Structure › Craft & Structure

Grade 12 (ages 17–18)Reading comprehensionFree printable PDF

About this grade 12 worksheet

Free Grade 12 English worksheet (Common Core RL.11-12.4): analyze point of view, word choice and structure in "Sonnet 18". Skill: Word choice, structure and point of view. Level: Grade 12 — also suits Year 13 (UK).

For teachers: skills & standards

CCSS RL.11-12.4: Word choice, structure and point of view
CCSS RL.11-12.5: Word choice, structure and point of view
CCSS RL.11-12.6: Word choice, structure and point of view
Works as a morning-work page, a centre/station activity, homework or an early-finisher task.

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What age is it for?

It is designed for Grade 12 (ages 17–18), but use it with any child who is ready.

What skills does it build?

Word choice, structure and point of view.

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More “Craft & Structure” printables (rl/ri.11-12.4–6: word choice, structure and point of view)

Craft & Structure: Informational: The Placebo Effect (Grade 12) · Craft & Structure: Literature: The Translator’s Dilemma (Grade 12) · Craft & Structure: Informational: The Great Migration (Grade 12) · Craft & Structure: Literature: The Clockwork Bird (Grade 12)

All 5 craft & structure sheets → · Grade 12 English: all 10 skills → · All Common Core grades

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