The Tragedy of Romeo & Juliet
Prologue Annotation Activity
Step 1 Directions: Closely read and annotate the prologue to William Shakespeare's drama, "The Tragedy of Romeo & Juliet."
Use the Annotation Guide to help with your annotations.
Prologue Pacts:
The Prologue is the opening of the play. In the Prologue, the chorus tells the audience what will happen.
The Prologue is a sonnet.
Annotation
Guide
Label
The poem's rhyme scheme.
Underling
Words of phrases you do not
know. Look up their meaning
and write in the margins.
Star and Identify
Figurative language such as
simile, metaphor,
personification, alliteration,
etc.
Box
Words that depict setting
Write
Any connects you make in the
margins
Circle
All uses of the word "two" and
words or phrases that
reinforce the idea of "two".
Squiggle Line
Phrases and images
associated with death.
Highlight
Phrases that explain the
relationship between the two
households.
Prologue
Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
Doth with their death bury their parent's strife.
The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,
And the continuance of their parent's rage,
Which, but their children's end, nought could remove,
Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage;
The which if you with patient ears attend,
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.
When you are done, move on to Step 2 →