Poetry Circles
Concept and lesson materials by Patrick Funk, Chapin High School ([email protected]).
Let's practice together. Examine the lines below from Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Scene 5. Observe three smart things about them.
CONTEXT: This is the first time that Romeo and Juliet speak to each other in the play. They are at the Capulet masquerade party.
ROMEO: If I profane with my unworthiest hand
This holy shrine, the gentle sin is this:
My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand
To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.
JULIET: Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much,
Which mannerly devotion shows in this;
For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch,
And palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss.
ROMEO: Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?
JULIET: Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer.
ROMEO: O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do;
They pray — grant thou, lest faith turn to despair.
JULIET: Saints do not move, though grant for prayers' sake.
ROMEO: Then move not, while my prayer's effect I take.
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