English

Quarter 2, Wk.4
9
Identify the Distinguishing Features of Notable
Anglo American Sonnets, Dramatic Poetry,
Vignettes and Short Stories

Department of Education ● Republic of the Philippines

i
 Features of Anglo-American
Literature
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What I Need to Know

Following the track of your journey, you are to be guided by this objectives;

1. Identify the features of sonnets, dramatic poetry, vignettes and short stories.
2. Point out the elements in the short story.
3. Answer questions comprehensively from a story read.

What I Know

PRE-TEST
Let us determine how far you can recall. Write the letter of the correct answer
in your activity notebook.

1. What is a sonnet?
a. a fourteen line rhyming poem c. a type of villanelle
b. a sixteen line unrhymed poem d. a longer version of the Haiku
2. Which of the following is NOT a type of sonnet?
a. English sonnet c. Draconian sonnet
b. Italian sonnet d. Petrarchan sonnet
3. Which of the following is true?
a. Sonnets are a type of ballad c. Villanelles are simple, short poems
b. Ballads are often adapted to song d. Villanelles are a type of sonnet
4. What is a characteristic of the sonnet?
a. It is iambic pentameter c. it has an octave and sestet
b. It rhymes d. All of the above
5. The vantage point from which a story is told is
a. chronological order c. plot
b. point of view d. conflict
6. A story that presents events in the time sequence in which they occurred one right after
the other is called
a. plot c. conflict
b. chronological order d. foreshadowing
7. A vignette provides insight about an important element of a story, such as
a, the setting c. an idea
b. a character d. all of the above
8. A vignette is a/n ________ scene.
a. long c. iconic
b. short d. none of the above
9. The time and place of a story, play, or narrative poem is called
a. point of view c. climax
b. resolution d. setting
10. The final part of the story in which the conflict is resolved and the story is brought to a
close is called
a. resolution c. omniscient
b. setting d. plot

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 What’s In
Take a look on the infographics below. Can you spot items to be learned?

Source: www.tweetspeakpoetry.com/
www.pinterest.com
Task 1. Base on the infographics, create a word out from the jumbled letters. Write the
answers in your activity notebook.
1. nonets _______ 6. emeht _________
2. tolp _______ 7. retcarahc _______
3. tilcfcon _______ 8. naeraepsekahs _____
4. gnittes _______ 9. iewv fo tniop _______
5. signveett _______ 10. horts torsy _______

What’s New
Literature, according to Wordsworth, is the expression of life in words of
truth and beauty. It is the written record of man’s spirit, his emotions, thoughts and
aspirations. It is the history and only history of the human soul.
Literature is a group of works of art made up of words. Most are written, but some are
passed on by word of mouth. Literature usually means works of poetry and prose that are
especially well written.

A. POETRY
Poetry is a literary composition in verse form having a regular rhyme, rhythm and
meter and divided into stanzas.

A Sonnet is a one-stanza, 14-line lyric poem, written in iambic pentameter and

with a strict rhyme scheme. The primary difference between a Shakespearean sonnet
and a Petrarchan sonnet is the way the poem's 14 lines are grouped. Rather than employ
quatrains, the Petrarchan sonnet combines an octave (eight lines) with a sestet (six lines)
Take a look at the examples of sonnets in literature.

Italian or Petrarchan sonnet was introduced by 14th century Italian poet

Francesco Petrarch.

'Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, (a)

With conquering limbs astride from land to land; (b)
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand (b)
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame (a)
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name (a)
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand (b)

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 Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command (b)
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame. (a)
'Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!' cries she (c)
With silent lips. 'Give me your tired, your poor, (d)
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, (c)
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. (d)
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, (c)
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!’ (d)

The Petrarchan sonnet, perfected by the Italian poet Petrarch, divides the 14 lines into
two sections: an eight-line stanza (octave) rhyming ABBAABBA, and a six-line stanza
(sestet) rhyming CDCDCD or CDECDE.

A Shakespearean or English sonnet is generally written in iambic pentameter,

in which there are 10 syllables in each line. The rhythm of the lines must be as below:

SONNET 18
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 dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimmed.
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
Nor shall Death brag thou wand’rest 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.

The rhyme scheme of the Shakespearian sonnet is abab–cdcd–efef–gg, which is

difficult to follow. Hence, only Shakespeare is known to have done it.

Dramatic poetry encompasses a highly emotional story that's written in verse and
meant to be recited. It usually tells a story or refers to a specific situation. It is classified
into poetic plays, which in turn are of five types namely: comedy, tragedy, dramatic
history, farce and melodrama, masque and dramatic monologue.

A comedy is a dramatic play of light and humorous character, typically with a

cheerful or happy ending.

A tragedy is a dramatic play portraying the struggle of a strong-willed protagonist

against fate, as predestined by mysterious, divine, social or psychological forces
culminating in disaster and usually death caused by a flaw in the protagonist’s character.

Five great Shakespearean tragedies are:

1. Hamlet – tragedy of indecision
2. King Lear – tragedy of parental love
3. Macbeth – tragedy of ambition
4. Othello – tragedy of conjugal love
5. Romeo and Juliet – tragedy of young love

A dramatic history is a dramatic play dealing with a past historical event.

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A farce is a light dramatic composition marked by broadly satirical comedy and
improbable plot. Melodrama is a dramatic composition characterized by extravagant
theatricality and by the predominance of plot and physical action over characterization.

A masque is a short allegorical dramatic entertainment popular with courtly audiences

consisting of pantomime and dancing. Dramatic monologue is a dramatic composition
in verse form having one speaker only.

Easy Drill
Task 2
Directions: Referring to what you have learned about poetry, answer the following:
1. What is written so it can be put on as a play? ___________________
2. How many lines are in a Sonnet? ________________________
3. Which sonnet has an octave and a sestet? ________________________
4. What uses rhythm, rhyme, and meter? ________________________
5. What is the rhyming scheme of Shakespearean Sonnet? __________________

In literature, a vignette (pronounced vin-yet) is a short scene that captures a single

moment or a defining detail about a character, idea, or other element of the story.
Vignettes are mostly descriptive; in fact, they often include little or no plot detail. They are
not stand-alone literary works, nor are they complete plots or narratives. Instead,
vignettes are small parts of a larger work, and can only exist as pieces of a whole story.
Notably, the word vignette comes from the French vigne meaning “little vine,” and the
term specifically arose for the small vines drawn on the pages of printed texts.

Vignettes are important because of their descriptive nature—they can illuminate

significant information, create depth of character, or provide insight about past events or
circumstances. This helps create a more complete picture of the greater story. All stories
rely on vignettes to provide detail. Without them, stories would be little more than plot
outlines.

Sample vignette:

In Our Time (By Ernest Hemingway)

“Maera lay still, his head on his arms, his face in the sand. He felt warm and sticky
from the bleeding. Each time he felt the horn coming. Sometimes the bull only bumped
him with his head. Once the horn went all the way through him and he felt it go into the
sand … Maera felt everything getting larger and larger and then smaller and smaller. Then
it got larger and larger and larger and then smaller and smaller. Then everything
commenced to run faster and faster as when they speed up a cinematograph film. Then
he was dead.”
In this impressionistic sketch, the author gives an illustration of the character Maera, who is
a bullfighter that dies from injuries inflicted by a bull.

Task 3
Write True if the statement is correct and if it does not correctly refer to the idea,
write false.
1. Vignettes need to be long to tell the story. ________
2. Vignettes need to have a beginning, middle, and end.________
3. Historical fiction is a literary genre that frequently uses vignettes to tell the
story.__________
4. Vignettes are always told using pictures. _________
5. Vignettes often focus on setting, plot, and characters. __________

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B. PROSE
Prose is a form of language that has no formal metrical structure. It applies a natural
flow of speech, and ordinary grammatical structure, rather than rhythmic structure,
such as in the case of traditional poetry. Prose comprises of full grammatical
sentences, which consist of paragraphs, and forgoes aesthetic appeal in favor of clear,
straightforward language. It can be said to be the most reflective of conversational
speech.

A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting
and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of
evoking a single effect or mood. Short stories tend to be less complex than novels.
Usually, a short story will focus on only one incident, has a single plot, a single setting,
a limited number of characters, and covers a short period of time.

Below are the elements of a short story, and each is discussed thoroughly to
widen your understanding

Elements of a Short Story

 Setting
It is the time and place of which the story revolves. The time of the story tells
when did the story took place, meanwhile, the place of the story is the
geographical location of where the story happened. Other authors include the
weather condition, social condition, and mood or atmosphere of the story. These
sub-elements can make the readers engage more of the story.

 Plot
It is the narrative sequence on how the author arranged his or her ideas. This is a
planned, logical series of event that has its own beginning, middle, and end.

There are five essential components of the plot:

Introduction: It is the beginning of the story, in which the character and setting
are described by the author.

Rising action: It is where the events of the story have become a little complicated,
and the conflict of the story is revealed.

Climax: It is the highest point of the interest and the turning point of the story. A
good climax can make the readers wonder what will happen next, they will ask
themselves whether the conflict will be resolved or not. A good climax makes the
readers wonder and read more.

Falling action: The events and conflicts of the story begin to resolve of
themselves. The readers will have a hint of what will happen next and whether the
conflict will be resolved or not.

Denouement: It is the final outcome of the story. The events and conflicts are
untangled and resolved.

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 Conflict
This is the vital element of a short story, without the presence of conflict, there
will be no plot. It is not merely a form of an argument between two characters,
but rather it is a form of opposition that faces the main character.

There are two types of conflict, external conflict, and internal conflict. Moreover,
there are four kinds of conflict: man against man or physical conflict; man
against society or social conflict; man against circumstances or classical
conflict; and man against himself or herself or psychological conflict.

 Character
It is either the person is in a work for fiction, or it is solely the characteristics of a
person. Characters remind themselves that they should be consisted and
motivated. There are characters that are individual, developing and statistic.

 Point of view
When you write a story, a point of view must be needed to the angle from which
the story is narrated. Some of the points of view are innocent eyes, extreme
consciousness, first-person and omniscient.

 Theme

The theme of a short story can be a guide,it can control or insight of the flow of the
story. The theme may be the thoughts of the author.

What Is It

Now, let us check how well you learned.

Task 3. Comparing and Contrasting (Sonnet)
Using the blank Venn Diagram show/ reflect the similarities and differences of
Shakespearean and Petrarchan sonnet. Use your activity notebook.

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Task 3. Exploring Ideas (My Last Duchess by Robert Browning)
Discuss the quotation below which were taken from the poem. Focus on what it would be like to
be married to the Duke, and what the poem suggests about the Duke’s relationship with his wife
and his own character. Refer to this link https://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/browning/section3/
for the poem’s manuscript.

The Duke’s Description of the Duchess What does this tell us?
“She had a heart-how shall I say? -too soon
made glad”

“She liked whatever she looked on, and

her looks went everywhere”

“as if she ranked my gift

of a nine hundred years-old name with
anybody’s gift”

“She smiled, no doubt whenever I

passed her; but who passed without
Much the same smile?”

What’s More
Task 4. Fill in the chart. Read a certain Shakespearean or Petrarchan sonnet
and fill-in information in the chart as asked.
Sonnet Characteristics Chart

Sonnet Title

Number of Lines
Number of Stanzas
Rhyme Scheme
Meter
Other Observations

Short Story

Task 6. Prose in Process.

Read the story “Thank You Ma’am” by Langston Hughes (see attached copy) and identify
its elements by filling in a graphic organizer below.

ELEMENTS OF PROSE
SETTING

PLOT

CONFLICT

CHARACTERS

POINT OF VIEW

THEME

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Level-Up your Understanding
Answer the following questions about the story “Thank You Ma’am”.

1. What type of conflict does this quotation exemplify? “…a boy ran up behind her
and tried to snatch her purse.” ______________________________________

2. Why does Mrs. Jones hold on to Roger as he picks up her purse?

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3. What symbolic value does Mrs. Jones’ command that Roger was his face have?
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4. What does Roger’s response to Mrs. Jones tell the readers about his character?
“If I turn you loose, will you run?” asked the woman. “Yes’m”, said the boy.
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5. What is the deeper meaning in Mrs. Jones’ advice to Roger about stealing?
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What I Have Learned

Task 8. Vignette Vigilance

Remember what a vignette is and its elements. Write your own vignette about any
incident you have seen or experienced which you could have changed or improved if you
only had the courage to do so.
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