Shall I Compare Thee To A Summer's Day

SHALL I COMPARE THEE TO A SUMMER’S DAY

By William Shakespeare
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 dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimmed;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
Nor shall death brag thou wand’rest 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.

Summary of Shall I compare Thee To a Summer’s Day?

 Popularity of “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s
day?”: This poem was written by William Shakespeare, a
renowned English master. It was first published in 1609 in
The Passionate Pilgrim. The poem discusses
natural beauty and the capacity of poetry to render that
beauty into everlasting beauty. It also reflects the writer’s
attachment to the beautiful art of writing. It captures the
harmony of man and nature.
 “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” As a
Representative of Beauty: The poem is about love. It
begins as the speaker praises his anonymous friend without
ostentation, intending to present the image of a perfect
being. First, he compares his friend with the summer
season, keeping all of its attributes intact. Soon, he realizes
that everything on the earth suffers a decline, and he wants
his friend to live forever. So, he tries to preserve the beauty
of his friend in his precious verses. These eternal verses
will pass the gentle image of his friend to the coming
generations.
 Major Themes in “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s
day?”: The stability of love, immortal beauty, and man
versus nature are the poem’s central themes. Throughout
the sonnet, the speaker compares the person to whom the
poem is addressed with the inevitable, specific aspect of a
summer day. The poem explores the phenomenon of beauty
and the speaker’s sincere efforts to preserve this eternal joy
in the form of a poetic piece. He makes efforts to ensure his
friend will live in human memory forever, saved from the
oblivion that accompanies death. He is going to achieve
this through his verses, believing in this way, that his friend
will become one with time.
Analysis of Literary Devices Used in Shall I compare thee to a

summer’s day?
literary devices are modes that represent the writer’s unique
ideas. Shakespeare too has used some literary devices to enrich
the poem. The analysis is as follows,
1. Assonance: Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in
the same line. For example, the sound of /ou/ in “Nor lose
possession of that fair thou ow’st”.
2. Alliteration: Alliteration is the repetition of consonant
sounds in the initials of two successive words. For
example, the sound of /l/ in “So long lives this” and /t/
sound in “to Time thou grow’st.”
3. Consonance: Consonance is the repetition of consonant
sounds in the same line. For example, as the sound of /r/ in
“Nor shall death brag thou wand’rest in his shade” and the
sound of /s/ in “So long lives this, and this gives life to
thee.”
4. Imagery: Imagery is used to make readers perceive things
involving their five senses. For example, “Rough winds do
shake the darling buds of May” and “But thy eternal
summer shall not fade.”
5. Personification: Personification is to give human qualities
to inanimate objects. For example, “Rough winds do shake
the darling buds of May.”
6. Metaphor: It is a figure of speech in which an
implied comparison is made between the objects that are
different in nature. For example, “Shall I compare thee to a
summer’s day?” though it is somewhat interrogative.
7. Rhetorical Question: Rhetorical question is a question that
is not asked to receive an answer; it is just posed to make
the point clear. Shakespeare states rhetorical questions in
the first line of the poem to put emphasis on his point. For
example, “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”
Analysis of Poetic Devices Used in Shall I compare thee to a

summer’s day?
Poetic and literary devices are the same, but a few are used only
in poetry. Here is the analysis of some of the poetic devices used
in this poem.
1. Couplet: There are two constructive lines of verse in
a couplet, usually in the same meter and joined by rhyme.
This sonnet ends with a couplet, which usually reveals the
central idea of the poem.
2. End Rhyme: End Rhyme is used to make
the stanza melodious. Shakespeare has used end rhyme in
this poem such as; “see/thee”, “day/May”,
“Temperate/date” and “shade/fade.”
3. Iambic Pentameter: It is a type of meter having
five iambs per line the poem follows iambic
pentameter such as;
“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”
4. Sonnet: A sonnet is a fourteen-line poem usually written in
iambic pentameter. This Shakespearean sonnet has
its octave and sestet.

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SHALL I COMPARE THEE TO A SUMMER’S DAY

Summary of Shall I compare Thee To a Summer’s Day?

Analysis of Literary Devices Used in Shall I compare thee to a

Analysis of Poetic Devices Used in Shall I compare thee to a

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