1、Blank verse
（1）Blank verse is the poems of unrhymed lines and usually written in iambic pentameter.
（2）It is a very popular verse form in English poetry .
(3) It was extensively employed in English poetry of the Renaissance.
2、What do Shakespeare’s tragedies reflect?
1. a period of gloom and sorrow (personal & social)
2. a profound dissatisfaction with life, condemning society
3. the struggle and conflicts between good and evil, between justice and injustice.
3、Features of Shakespeare’s comedies
His tragedies have some characteristic in common. Each portrays some noble hero, who faces the injustice of human life and is caught in a difficult situation and whose fate is closely connected with the fate of the whole nation.
4、Chaucer’s contribution
For the first time in English literature, Chaucer presented to us
a comprehensive realistic picture of the English society of his time
a whole gallery of vivid characters from all walks of life .
5、Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 & Hamlet
Sonnet 18：The poem shows that Shakespeare has a profound meditation on the destructive power of time and the eternal beauty brought forth by poetry to the one he loves. A nice summer’s day is usually transient, but the beauty in poetry can last for ever. Thus Shakespeare has a faith in the permanence of poetry.
