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    Shall I Compare Thee To A Summer's Day

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    Shall I Compare Thee To A Summer's Day

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    serenan2306
    86 views25 pages

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    Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day

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    Shall I Compare Thee To A Summer's Day

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    serenan2306

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    Shall I compare thee

    to a summer’s day?
    WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
    Imagine the perfect summer day
    Now think about someone you care about.
    How are they and the summer day alike?
    Sonnet 18
    William Shakespeare
    Introduction

    In this sonnet, the speaker compares his beloved


    to a summer’s day, giving different reasons why
    they are more beautiful than the day. Their
    beauty can be preserved for all time because it is
    protected by the poem, which time cannot erase.
    Structure of the Shakespearean sonnet
     What is a quatrain?
    It is three groups of four lines.
     What is a couplet?
    It is a pair of rhyming lines.

     IN THE POEM:
     14 lines
     Three quatrains, followed by
     One couplet
     Regular rhyme scheme (ABAB CDCD EFEF GG)
     Iambic Pentameter
    Iambic Pentameter
     What is it?
    A form of verse
     Each line has 10 syllables
     Why pentameter? (if “pente” means 5)
     Each line is divided into five segments called feet
     Each of these feet contain two syllables
     Why iambic?
    IAMB means that there is more stress on the second of the two
    syllables
    Iambic pentameter

    Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?


    Quote:
    Analysis
    Lines 1-2:

     Thespeaker starts by asking or wondering out loud whether he should


    compare his beloved to a summer’s day.
     Instead of thinking about that further, he expresses his affection.
     Thedescription of his beloved is more "lovely" and more "temperate" than a
    summer’s day.
     "temperate" Literal meaning- moderate, balanced  beloved’s qualities are
    not excessive like the summer day,
    or meaning calm (temperament)/ mild tempered i.e. does not anger easily.
    Lines 1-2:

     Read the first two lines and pay attention to the rhythm.
     Notice the natural bouncy rhythm.
     What form of verse is this?
     It is iambic pentameter.
     Foreshadowing:

    The pronoun "I" is a stressed syllable in the first line,


    but the pronoun "Thou" is unstressed in the second line.
    Guess who’s going to be the real subject of this poem
    Lines 3-4:

    • Here the speaker begins to personify nature.


    • Strong summer winds threaten those new flower buds that popped up
    in May,
    and summer doesn’t last very long.
    • The point here is clear: the summer WILL end.
    • But summer is also fated to begin every year.
    • Can the summer possibly have "too short a date," if it happens an
    infinite number of times? Isn’t it, in a meaningful sense, immortal?
    Lines 5-6

     Personification of nature: the speaker’s saying sometimes the


    sun is too hot, and other times you can’t even see it at all (hidden,
    we assume, by clouds).
     He calls the sun the "eye of heaven," refers to it using the word
    "his," and gives it a "complexion," which generally means refers to
    the skin of the face.
     "Complexion" used to be used to describe someone’s health.
    Lines 7-8

    • With these lines, the speaker declares that everything


    beautiful must eventually fade away and lose its charm,
    either by chance or by the natural flow of time.
    • "untrimm’d“  We might read it as what happens to "fair"
    or beautiful things - things that are beautiful eventually lose
    their trimmings, or their decorations, and thus fade from
    beauty.
    Lines 9-10:

     ‘But’ shows a turn!


     Suddenly, the tone and direction of the poem changes
    dramatically. Moving on from summer and the limitations in
    nature, the speaker pronounces that the beloved he’s speaking to
    isn’t subject to all of these rules he’s laid out.
     The speaker argues that, unlike the real summer, his beloved’s
    summer (by which he means beautiful, happy years) will never
    go away, nor will the beloved lose his/her beauty.
    Lines 9-10:

     But remember what we mentioned in line 4? The summer in real life actually
    is an "eternal summer," since it comes back every year for all eternity. Just
    like we saw with all of the personifications of nature in the previous lines, we
    begin to notice here that "thee" and the "summer’s day" are really quite
    similar.
     Both can fade away or, depending on how you look at it, be eternal, and both
    can be personified. That’s why here, at line 9, the poet switches direction –
    both the beloved and nature are threatened mainly by time, and it is only
    through this third force (poetry), that they can live on
    Lines 11-12:

     In another personification, the speaker introduces death.


     Death, won’t get a chance to claim the beloved in the valley
    of the shadow of death (this death’s shadow idea is from
    Psalm 23:4), since he/she is immortal.
     Here, then, the poet is making two bold claims: first, that his
    poem is "eternal," and second, that it nourishes and develops
    "thee," as it is where he/she is able to "grow."
    Lines 13-14:

     The couplet, at the end, is an extension of what the speaker points toward in line
    12.
     Inother words: as long as men live and can read, this poem will continue to live,
    and so keep "thee" alive.
     There’s more personification: technically, poems certainly don’t "live.“
     Shakespeare states confidently (confident tone) that his poetry will persist as
    long as there are people on this earth.
    Lines 13-14:

     We ought to wonder whether it is "thee" who will be alive, or rather the poet’s
    (very limited) representation of "thee."
     Irony: The poem itself will have a longer effect on readers than the beauty of the
    speaker’s loved one.
     The last two lines hint at something we suspected from the first pronouns: this
    speaker seems more interested in himself and his abilities as a poet than the
    qualities of his addressee.
    Tones

    1. Calm, victorious, triumphant, awestruck throughout.


    2. Admiring / respectful
    3. From line 9 onwards his tone is one of quiet conviction and
    confidence.
     4. It becomes disparage/belittling when he addresses death.
    Mood

     1. Poem starts on a joyous mood. Speaker feels happy and


    enthusiastic about his beloved and the comparison he is about to
    create.
     2. The use of ‘thee’ which was a word used for somebody you know
    really well, creates a mood and tone of gentleness, intimacy or
    closeness.
    Symbolism

    There is the symbol of summer, which is a symbol


    of youth and beauty
    There is the symbol of nature and the rest of the
    seasons, which symbolise life and death

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