Version élève → LLCER anglais · Lycée général · 1re · Première

Séquence 4 · Love beyond time and death: Shakespeare and Poe

Can love resist time, absence and death?

Bonjour !

Dans cette séquence de langues, littératures et cultures étrangères (anglais), tu vas chercher à répondre à la grande question écrite en haut de la page. Elle se fait en 2 séances. Pour chaque séance : lis la consigne, étudie les documents, réponds aux questions sur ta feuille ou sur l'ENT, puis recopie l'essentiel dans ton cahier. Tu peux imprimer cette page avec le bouton « Imprimer ».

À la fin, je serai capable de :

Les mots importants

Shakespearean sonnet: three quatrains and a couplet, voltaiambic pentametermetaphor, personification (Time)elegy, mourning, refrainrepetition, internal rhyme, anapaestic rhythm

Ressources de la séquence

Les notions, les repères et les pistes pour aller plus loin, utiles pour toutes les séances.

Les notions à maîtriser

Shakespearean sonnet
14 lines: three quatrains (abab cdcd efef) and a final couplet (gg) which concludes.
Iambic pentameter
Line of five iambs: « Which al/ters when / it al/ter-a/tion finds ».
Volta
Turn in the argument; here the couplet turns the poem into a challenge.
Personification
Time with his « bending sickle », like the Grim Reaper.
Elegy
Poem of mourning for a dead person.
Refrain
Repeated line or phrase: « In this kingdom by the sea », « the beautiful Annabel Lee ».

Repères

DateÉvénement
1609Publication of Shakespeare's Sonnets by Thomas Thorpe.
1847Death of Virginia, Poe's young wife.
1849« Annabel Lee », Poe's last complete poem, published two days after his death.
1859The Works of the Late Edgar Allan Poe.

Pour aller plus loin

Sources et bibliographie

Mon parcours : je choisis mon rythme

Séance 1 · An ever-fixed mark: Shakespeare's definition of love

65 min

Séance approfondie : cours développé, documents sourcés, activités exigeantes avec coups de pouce.

La question du jour

What is true love, according to Shakespeare?

Mon plan de travail

Le cours à lire · The Shakespearean sonnet

A Shakespearean sonnet has three quatrains and a final couplet, in iambic pentameter. Sonnet 116 defines love mostly by negation: love « is not love / Which alters when it alteration finds ». The second quatrain gives two metaphors of permanence from sailing: a sea-mark that resists storms, the star that guides lost ships. The third quatrain personifies Time as a reaper with a sickle: beauty fades, love does not. The couplet is a challenge: if I am wrong, I never wrote, and no man ever loved.

Document 1 · William Shakespeare, Sonnet 116

Sonnet, 1609, text of the 1883 edition (public domain).

Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments. Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove: O, no! it is an ever-fixed mark That looks on tempests and is never shaken; It is the star to every wandering bark, Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken. Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks Within his bending sickle's compass come; Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, But bears it out even to the edge of doom. If this be error and upon me prov'd, I never writ, nor no man ever lov'd.

Source : W. Shakespeare, Sonnet 116 (full text on Wikisource).

Pour bien lire ce document :

impediments: obstacles ; alters: change ; bark: navire ; sickle: faucille, faux ; compass: portée ; doom: Jugement dernier.

Activité 1 · Understand

12 min
Essentiel

Supports : Document 1

Consigne :

Read the sonnet and answer in English.

  1. What is the poet's main claim?
  2. Which two images express permanence in lines 5 to 8?
  3. What threatens beauty in lines 9 to 10?

Ce qui est attendu (6 pts) : Comprehension

Activité 2 · Analyse

18 min
Essentiel

Supports : Document 1

Consigne :

Study the form.

  1. Show the rhyme scheme of the first quatrain.
  2. Scan line 3 and name the metre.
  3. What is the function of the couplet?

Ce qui est attendu (7 pts) : Analysis

Activité 3 · Speak

15 min
Travail à rendre

Supports : Document 1

Consigne :

Record a reading of the sonnet (stress the iambs), then 1 minute: « Do you agree that love which changes is not love? »

Ce qui est attendu (7 pts) : Oral production

Trace écrite · document à compléter (papier ou ENT)

Complète la trace écrite avec les mots de la banque, puis recopie-la dans ton cahier.

coupletnegationquatrainsTime

A Shakespearean sonnet has three _________ and a _______ in iambic pentameter. Sonnet 116 defines love by ________; love is an « ever-fixed mark », and « Love's not ______'s fool ».

Séance 2 · In a kingdom by the sea: Poe's elegy

65 min

Séance approfondie : cours développé, documents sourcés, activités exigeantes avec coups de pouce.

La question du jour

How can a poem keep a lost love alive?

Mon plan de travail

Le cours à lire · Elegy and incantation

« Annabel Lee » (1849) is an elegy. The opening imitates a fairy tale (« It was many and many a year ago, / In a kingdom by the sea »). Two children love « with a love that was more than love », so intense that the seraphs envy them: a wind « chilling and killing » kills the girl. The poem is built on repetition: refrains, rhymes (sea / Lee / me), internal rhymes (« the moon never beams … bringing me dreams »). In the last stanza the speaker refuses separation: nothing can « dissever my soul from the soul » of Annabel Lee, and he lies by her tomb every night. Love survives, but as obsession.

Document 1 · Edgar Allan Poe, « Annabel Lee », stanzas 1 and 2

Poem, 1849, text of the Works (1859) (public domain).

It was many and many a year ago, In a kingdom by the sea, That a maiden there lived whom you may know By the name of Annabel Lee; And this maiden she lived with no other thought Than to love and be loved by me. I was a child and she was a child, In this kingdom by the sea: But we loved with a love that was more than love— I and my Annabel Lee; With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven Coveted her and me.

Source : E. A. Poe, « Annabel Lee » (full text on Wikisource).

Pour bien lire ce document :

maiden: jeune fille ; seraphs: séraphins ; coveted: convoitaient.

Document 2 · Edgar Allan Poe, « Annabel Lee », stanzas 5 and 6

Same poem.

But our love it was stronger by far than the love Of those who were older than we— Of many far wiser than we— And neither the angels in heaven above, Nor the demons down under the sea, Can ever dissever my soul from the soul Of the beautiful Annabel Lee: For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side Of my darling—my darling—my life and my bride, In the sepulchre there by the sea, In her tomb by the sounding sea.

Source : E. A. Poe, « Annabel Lee » (full text on Wikisource).

Pour bien lire ce document :

dissever: séparer ; beams: brille ; night-tide: nuit (archaïque) ; sepulchre: sépulcre.

Activité 1 · Understand

12 min
Essentiel

Supports : Documents 1 and 2

Consigne :

Read the stanzas and answer in English.

  1. Where and when does the story take place?
  2. Why does the speaker say the angels were jealous?
  3. What does the speaker do every night?

Ce qui est attendu (6 pts) : Comprehension

Activité 2 · Interpret

18 min
Approfondissement

Supports : Documents, lesson

Consigne :

Write a paragraph (about 150 words): « In Annabel Lee, the music of the poem expresses an obsession. »

Ce qui est attendu (8 pts) : Written production

Activité 3 · Translate

15 min
Travail à rendre

Supports : Document 2

Consigne :

Translate into French the lines « For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams / Of the beautiful Annabel Lee ».

Ce qui est attendu (6 pts) : Translation

Trace écrite · document à compléter (papier ou ENT)

Complète la trace écrite avec les mots de la banque, puis recopie-la dans ton cahier.

elegyobsessionrefrainsoul

« Annabel Lee » is an ______. The _______ « In this kingdom by the sea » and internal rhymes make it an incantation. Nothing can « dissever my ______ » from hers: love survives death as an _________.

Fiche à trous · je complète

Complète le texte avec les mots de la banque (sur papier ou dans le document de l'ENT).

demonsmarksoulstarTime

Sonnet 116 says that true love is « an ever-fixed ______ » and « the ______ to every wandering bark ».

« Love's not ______'s fool »: love is not the plaything of time.

In « Annabel Lee », neither angels nor ______ can « dissever my ______ » from hers.

Ce que j'ai appris

Les 3 idées que je retiens :
Une phrase en anglais que je veux retenir :
Ce qui reste difficile pour moi / ma question pour le professeur :