Valentina Henriet
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 dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this and this gives life to thee.
An introduction to Shakespeare’s
Sonnets
• Some of these sonnets were written as early as 1580s, but
most were written in the 1590s
• Published in 1609 (with the exception of Passionate
Pilgrim sonnets previously published in 1599)
• Most use the ELIZABETHAN FORM:
3 quatrains and a final couplet
rhyming ABAB CDCD EFEF GG
Themes
• Many of these poems deal with the
THEME OF LOVE and TIME:
LOVE outlasts TIME
POETRY outlasts both LOVE AND TIME
• Other themes: beauty, death, friendship, power
of the beloved and suffering of the lover.
Two groups of sonnets
• 154 Sonnets divided into 2 groups:
a) 126 sonnets addressed to a YOUNG, goodlooking MAN (Fair Youth)
b) 28 sonnets addressed to a mysterious
DARK LADY
Sonnets to the young man
• They form one of the most impressive
explorations of the themes of LOVE.
• Shakespeare explores from all angles the
sentiments the young man inspires him.
Sonnets to the young man
• In his sonnets Shakespeare wishes to
preserve the ETERNAL PART of the young’s
man beauty against the effects of time.
• There is a repeated idea of the poetry’s
capacity to IMMORTALISE.
Sonnet 18
• Sonnet 18 uses a typical convention of Renaissance poems
about the transience of youth and beauty.
COMPARISON with aspect of nature. Nature imaginery
dominates the poem .
To a summer’s day
Sonnet 18
BUT, like a real summer, the young man’s
youth won’t last long.
Turning point of the sonnet:
In the world of the poem, his beauty will
never fade.
ART will preserve the IDEA OF YOUTH.
st
1
quatrain
Shall I compare thee to a
summer’s day?
Should I compare you to a
summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more
temperate:
The youth’s beauty is more
gentle and restrained than the
beauty of a summer day.
Rough winds do shake the
darling buds of may
Strong winds shake the
beautiful bud of the early
summer
And summer’s lease hath all too
short a date
Summer has a deadline which is
too short
(LEASE: legal terminology)
nd
2
quatrain
Sometime too hot the eye of
heaven shines
Sometimes the sun shines too
hot
And often is his gold
complexion dimmed
And his golden face is often
obscured
And every fair from fair
sometime decline
All beautiful things
occasionally become inferior in
comparison with their
essential previous state of
beauty
By chance, or nature’s
changing course untrimmed
By chance or by the changing
course of the nature without
ornaments
3rd quatrain
But thy eternal summer shall
not fade
But your eternal summer shall
not die
Nor lose possession of that fair
thou ow’st
Nor shall it lose its hold on that
beauty which you so richly
possess
Nor shall death brag thou
wander’st in his shade
And you will never die
When in eternal lines to time
thou grow’st
As you will live on my enduring
poetry
Final couplet
So long as men can breathe, or
eyes can see
As long as people live and
breathe, as long as eyes can see
it
So long lives this, and this gives
life to thee.
That is how long these verses
will live, celebrating you , and
continually renewing you life.
Figures of speech
• SIMILE compares two different elements or ideas and allow them
to remain distinct in spite of their similarities.
Ex: “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”
• HYPERBOLE: the use of exaggeration as a rethorical device.
Ex: “Shall I compare the to a summer’s day?”
• ASSONANCE is the repetition of vowel sounds.
Ex: “So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.”
Figures of speech
• METAPHOR: the use of a word or phrase to refer to
something that isn’t, creating a direct similarity between the
word or phrase used and the thing described.
Ex: “The eye of heaven” is used to referring to the SUN.
• ALLITERATION: using several words that begin with the
same letter.
Ex: "Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date."
Figures of speech
• PERSONIFICATION: the attribution of human qualities to
objects
“his gold complexion dimmed” where HIS is used to
referring to the SUN
• REPETITION: the use of words repeatedly to reinforce an
image, idea or to convey a message
Ex: Note the repetition of certain words through the sonnet:
summer, fair, so long, thou.
Meter
• The meter is IAMBIC PENTAMETER which means 5 iambic
feet : ten syllable lines in which even-numbered syllables are
naturally accented
• A IAMB is a metrical foot consisting of an unaccented
syllable followed by an accented syllable.
ex: Shall I com PARE thee TO a SUM mer’s DAY?
• This beat is used as it replicates the rhythm of that human
heart and is a popular metre for love poetry.
Final observations
In William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18, one gets the
feeling he is describing a love that goes beyond the
temporal realm of time and seasons.
• LINES ONE AND TWO start with a question which the
rest of the sonnet answers.
• LINES THREE THROUGH EIGHT point out a number
of negative characteristics of summer.
• LINES NINE THROUGH FOURTEEN offer a view of
the lover's many contrasts with nature.