Recalling the notes from our introduction to Comedy, a parody is a style of comedy that mocks a subject through imitation. A good example would be Weird Al Yankovic's song 'Smells Like Nirvana,' which is a parody of Nirvana's 'Smells Like Teen Spirit.' In this case, the song by Weird Al imitates the instruments and lyrics of Nirvana's original to a comedic effect.
For this week's blog, you will be posting a parody of Shakespeare's '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 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.
Your sonnet must be in iambic pentameter (10 syllables per line) and 14 lines long (3 quatrains and a couplet) with the following rhyme scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF GG.
Here is an example:
A Sonnet for Sherbert
Shall I compare thee to a chocolate cake?
Thou art more fruity and more exotic.
Good cake is often difficult to make
Especially for me, I'm moronic...
Sometime I will find a good recipe
And make the best cake in the whole wide world,
But until then we'll have to wait and see
And to sherbert land I will be hurled.
But my dreams of chocolate will never fade
With sherbert ready in my freezer,
It is easier to get delayed
If only making cake were easier!
So long as I continue on the path
I'll eat sherbert, and await chocolate's wrath.
Sonnets are due by 3pm, Friday 12/14.
