Sonnet 106 – William Shakespeare

True or false?

• The speaker reads old chronicles and poems praising beautiful people
• The speaker notices the blazon of hand, foot, lip, eye and brow
• The speaker declares that all past praises are prophecies of the present beloved
• The speaker admits that his own generation has eyes to wonder but lacks tongues to praise

• Awights
• Bladies
• Cknights
• Dshepherds
• Equeens

• AThey looked only with 'divining eyes'.
• BThey had not skill enough to sing the beloved's worth.
• CThey had never seen the beloved directly.
• DThey deliberately chose to praise lesser beauties.
• EThey were forbidden from writing about living people.

• Ahand
• Bfoot
• Clip
• Deye
• Ebrow
• Fhair

• The speaker reads old chronicles praising beautiful people from the past.
• The speaker notices the detailed blazon of features such as hand, foot, lip, eye and brow.
• The speaker claims that earlier praises were actually prophecies of the present beauty.
• The speaker admits that his own generation can only wonder and cannot praise adequately.

• AIt suggests that beauty has the power to inspire and create art.
• BIt implies that old poetry is more beautiful than the people it describes.
• CIt criticises earlier poets for writing too much about beauty.
• DIt claims that beauty fades when it is written about.

• AThey belong to a distant era with an incomplete perspective.
• BThey were old-fashioned and untalented.
• CThey deliberately wrote in an outdated style.
• DThey were more skilled than modern poets.

• AA young man celebrated for his beauty, virtue and promise
• BA married woman known as the Dark Lady
• CA rival poet who competed for patronage
• DA noble patron who commissioned the poem

• AThe blazon, a catalogue praising individual physical features
• BThe pastoral elegy mourning a dead shepherd
• CThe epic simile comparing heroes to natural forces
• DThe dramatic soliloquy revealing a character's private thoughts

• AFrom admiration of their achievements to the recognition that they were unknowingly anticipating the Fair Youth
• BFrom contempt for their crude work to respect for their technical skill
• CFrom indifference to passionate love for their poetry
• DFrom envy of their fame to a desire to imitate them exactly

• AThe limits of language to express extraordinary beauty
• BThe tension between the past and the present
• CThe idea that wonder can exceed expression
• DThe certainty that perfect praise has been achieved
• EThe desire to praise conflicting with the inadequacy of words

True or false?

True or false?

• The speaker reads old chronicles and poems praising beautiful people from the past
• The speaker notices the blazon tradition listing features such as hand, foot, lip, eye and brow
• The speaker reinterprets earlier praises as prophecies of the Fair Youth
• The speaker admits that his own generation has eyes to wonder but lacks tongues to praise

• ABeauty inspires poetry, and the poetry itself becomes beautiful in turn.
• BOld rhymes were written only to record historical events, not to praise beauty.
• CThe speaker believes beauty fades unless it is written down by historians.
• DThe phrase shows the speaker rejecting all earlier poetry as worthless.

• AIt suggests their work is old and belongs to another era, creating respectful distance.
• BIt suggests their pens were broken and could not write clearly.
• CIt suggests their poetry was worthless and should be ignored.
• DIt suggests their poetry was written in a foreign language.

• AThe speaker says the present generation can see beauty clearly but cannot express it in words.
• BThe speaker says the present generation can express beauty perfectly but cannot see it clearly.
• CThe speaker says earlier poets could both see and praise beauty perfectly.
• DThe speaker says beauty does not exist in the present and only existed in the past.

• AEarlier poets had not skill enough to sing the Fair Youth's worth.
• BEarlier poets looked but with divining eyes, so their vision was indirect.
• CThe present generation lacks tongues to praise.
• DThe Fair Youth refuses to be praised.
• EThe Fair Youth's beauty is too ordinary to inspire poetry.

True or false?

• AIt establishes the poem as a process of discovery, inviting readers to follow the speaker's changing understanding.
• BIt signals that the speaker is addressing a specific person directly in the second person.
• CIt creates a sense of sudden shock and dramatic confrontation.
• DIt indicates that the speaker is describing a dream he has just woken from.

• AIt reflects on how beauty inspires artistic creation, linking the subject of the poems with the poetry itself.
• BIt suggests that old poems are ugly and should be discarded.
• CIt argues that rhyme is unnecessary in love poetry.
• DIt describes the physical appearance of the Fair Youth in detail.

• AIt mimics the cumulative, detailed observation of the blazon tradition while hinting at its limitations by reducing beauty to separate features.
• BIt shows that the speaker finds the Fair Youth physically unattractive.
• CIt proves that earlier poets had no interest in physical beauty.
• DIt creates a chaotic, disordered impression that mirrors the speaker's confusion.

• AIt introduces speculation rather than certainty, suggesting the speaker is reinterpreting the past rather than stating objective fact.
• BIt expresses a firm command to earlier poets to write differently.
• CIt shows that the earlier poets definitely succeeded in describing the Fair Youth.
• DIt indicates that the earlier poets were forbidden from writing about beauty.

• Ahad prophetic, intuitive vision that glimpsed a future beauty they could not fully comprehend.
• Bwere blind and unable to see anything at all.
• Cused magic to create perfect descriptions of the Fair Youth.
• Ddeliberately lied about the beauty they described.

• AIt separates perception from expression, showing that recognising beauty does not guarantee the ability to communicate it.
• BIt suggests that the speaker's generation is physically blind and mute.
• CIt argues that earlier poets had better eyesight than modern people.
• DIt implies that the Fair Youth cannot be seen or heard at all.

• AThe alternating rhymes create forward momentum through the quatrains, while the isolated GG couplet gives decisive weight to the final admission.
• BThe rhyme scheme is irregular and mirrors the speaker's confusion.
• CThe couplet's rhyme weakens the conclusion by making it sound uncertain.
• DThe rhymes repeat the same sound throughout, creating a monotonous effect.

• AThe strong stresses on 'eyes', 'wonder', 'lack' and 'praise' draw attention to the contrast between seeing and speaking, and the rhythm slows to let 'praise' resonate.
• BThe metre becomes so irregular that the line is impossible to scan.
• CThe rhythm speeds up dramatically to create a sense of panic.
• DThe line is written in prose rather than verse.

Sonnet 106 is a Shakespearean sonnet made up of three ____ followed by a concluding rhyming ____. Its rhyme scheme is ABAB CDCD EFEF ____.

The speaker reads old records and decides that earlier poets' praises are really ____ of the present beloved, since those poets had not ____ enough to sing the beloved's worth.

For we, which now behold these present days, / Have ____ to wonder, but lack ____ to praise.

Sonnet 106 was written during the ____ era, when poets frequently used a technique known as a ____ to catalogue individual physical features.

The speaker moves from confidence to ____, ending not with perfect praise but with an acknowledgement that true beauty exceeds ____ itself.

The speaker says earlier poets looked but with ____ eyes, so they had not ____ enough to sing the Fair Youth's worth.

In the final couplet the speaker says 'we, which now behold these present days, / Have eyes to ____, but lack tongues to ____.'