William Shakespeare

Shakespeare’s sonnets were composed

between 1593 and 1601, though not published
until 1609. That edition, The Sonnets of
Shakespeare, consists of 154 sonnets, all
written in the form of three quatrains and a
couplet that is now recognized as
Shakespearean. The sonnets fall into two
groups: sonnets 1-126, addressed to a beloved
friend, a handsome and noble young man,
presumably the author’s patron, and sonnets
127-152, to a malignant but fascinating “Dark
Lady," who the poet loves in spite of himself.
Nearly all of Shakespeare’s sonnets examine
the inevitable decay of time, and the
immortalization of beauty and love in poetry.
Shakespeare’s sonnets were composed
between 1593 and 1601, though not published
until 1609. That edition, The Sonnets of
Shakespeare, consists of 154 sonnets, all
written in the form of three quatrains and a
couplet that is now recognized as
Shakespearean. The sonnets fall into two
groups: sonnets 1-126, addressed to a beloved
friend, a handsome and noble young man,
presumably the author’s patron, and sonnets
127-152, to a malignant but fascinating “Dark
Lady," who the poet loves in spite of himself.
Nearly all of Shakespeare’s sonnets examine
the inevitable decay of time, and the
immortalization of beauty and love in poetry.
 an English poet and playwright,
widely regarded as the greatest
writer in the English language and
the world's pre-eminent dramatist.
He is often called England's
national poet and the "Bard of
Avon". His surviving works,
including some collaborations,
consist of about 38 plays, 154
sonnets, two long narrative
poems, and several other poems.
His plays have been translated
into every major living language
and are performed more often
than those of any other
playwright.
 Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-
Avon. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway,
with whom he had three children: Susanna, and twins
Hamnet and Judith.
 Between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career
in London as an actor, writer, and part owner of a
playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men,
later known as the King's Men.
 He appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613 at
age 49, where he died three years later. Few records
of Shakespeare's private life survive, and there has
been considerable speculation about such matters as
his physical appearance, sexuality, religious beliefs,
and whether the works attributed to him were written
by others.
 Shakespeare produced most of his known work
between 1589 and 1613.
 His early plays were mainly comedies and histories,
genres he raised to the peak of sophistication and
artistry by the end of the 16th century.
 He then wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608,
including Hamlet, King Lear, Othello, and
Macbeth, considered some of the finest works in
the English language.
 In his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also
known as romances, and collaborated with other
playwrights.
 Many of his plays were published in editions of
varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime. In
1623, two of his former theatrical colleagues
published the First Folio, a collected edition of his
dramatic works that included all but two of the
plays now recognised as Shakespeare's.
 Shakespeare was a respected poet and
playwright in his own day, but his reputation did
not rise to its present heights until the 19th century.
 The Romantics, in particular, acclaimed
Shakespeare's genius, and the Victorians
worshipped Shakespeare with a reverence that
George Bernard Shaw called "bardolatry".
 In the 20th century, his work
was repeatedly adopted
and rediscovered by new
movements in scholarship
and performance. His plays
remain highly popular today
and are constantly studied,
performed and
reinterpreted in diverse
cultural and political
contexts throughout the
world.
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 wander'st 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.
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
This question is flattering in itself as a
summer’s day is often associated with
beauty.
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

Shakespeare, however, explains that

his love’s beauty exceeds that of the
summer and does not have its
tendency towards unpleasant
extremes:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:

It should be noted that at the time the

sonnet was written, England had not yet
adopted the Gregorian calendar and May
was considered a summer month. In the
above quote, Shakespeare describes the
fragility and short duration of summer’s
beauty. The use of the word ‘lease’ reminds
us of the fact that everything beautiful
remains so for a limited time only and after a
while its beauty will be forcibly taken away.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed,

Shakespeare states that the sun, which he

personifies and refers to as ‘the eye of
heaven’, can be too hot or blocked from
view by the clouds unlike his ‘more
temperate’ love.
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed:

The repetition of the word ‘fair’ highlights the

fact that this fate is inescapable for
everything that possesses beauty.
“But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st”

Suddenly (though it was foreshadowed a bit in

line 8), the tone and direction of the poem
changes dramatically. Moving on from
bashing summer and the limitations inherent in
nature, the speaker pronounces that the
beloved he’s speaking to isn’t subject to all of
these rules he’s laid out.
“But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st”

Shakespeare, however, states that his love

will not lose their beauty to death or time
but will be preserved through his poetry:
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

(As long as there are humans alive on this

planet Your life and beauty will live on
through this sonnet)
Shakespeare’s self-assured claim makes it
possible to argue that the purpose of the
poem was not actually to pay a beloved
person a compliment but rather to praise
oneself for poetic skill.
Speaker:

The Author
Addressee:

The young man

Tone:

Endearing, deep
devotion for a lover
• “The darling buds of May” –
the beautiful, much loved
buds of the early summer

• “The eye of heaven” – Sun

Metaphor:
“Shall I compare thee to a
summer’s day?”
Metaphor:
"Thou art more lovely and more
temperate”
Personification:
“Rough winds do shake the
darling buds of May”
“Sometime too hot the eye of
heaven shines“
Personification:

“Nor shall death brag thou

wander’st in his shade”
Anaphora:
“So long as men can breathe, or
eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives
life to thee.”
Iambic pentameter
the most common metrical pattern in
poetry written in English, alternates weak
unstressed and strong stressed syllables to
make a ten-syllable line (weak
strong/weak strong/weak strong/weak
strong/weak strong).
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 wander'st 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.
 Love
 Literature and Writing
 Time
 Man and the Natural World
 Shakespeare's sonnets are a collection of
154 sonnets, dealing with themes such as the
passage of time, love, beauty and mortality,
first published in a
1609 quarto entitled SHAKE-SPEARES
SONNETS.
 Never before imprinted. (although
sonnets 138 and144 had previously been
published in the 1599 miscellany The
Passionate Pilgrim).
 The quarto ends with "A Lover's Complaint", a
narrative poem of 47 seven-line stanzas
written in rhyme royal.