006 – Sonnet 18
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Later in the year, we will be studying a play done by William Shakespeare. You will also
find yourself revisiting Shakespeare as you go through your high school career.
Shakespeare wrote many plays, but he is also famous for the poetry he wrote. He wrote
154 sonnets! As you will find out, sonnets are tough to write well…
An Iamb is a short or unstressed syllable, followed by one long or stressed syllable.
"The plowman homeward plods his weary way" consists of five iambs. (bolded parts are
stressed)
006 – Sonnet 18
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Note to teacher – questions 1-3 could be done partially on
their own, and partially as a class (answers will vary)
Before we get into the form of the sonnet too much, let’s look at the imagery.
1. Imagine the perfect summer day. It is early summer with just the perfect mix of
comfortable temperature and weather. List the details about that perfect day on
the chart that follows. Fill in the chart with images that appeal to the different
senses.
Sight
AWV
Touch
AWV
Taste
AWV
Smell
AWV
Hearing
AWV
2. Now write a general statement about the overall feeling created by this perfect
day. _______________________________________________ AWV
3. Now think of a person you care about.
a. How are this perfect summer day and this person alike? __________
AWV
b. How are they different? _________________________________ AWV
006 – Sonnet 18
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Now we will read through “Sonnet 18” together. Once we have read it, you will be
asked to work on the questions on your own.
SONNET 18
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.
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10
First. Let’s analyze it by quatrains, to help us understand what is going on.
006 – Sonnet 18
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Quatrain 1
Line
1
2
3
4
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:
4. What season of the year is dealt with in this sonnet? (give your answer and
line number)
Summer (1)
5. The quatrain contains an analogy that compares
The perfect summer day to his lover
6. Based on images from the chart you made earlier about
the perfect summer day, explain why the comparison
made by Shakespeare is an effective one. ______
An analogy is a
comparison between two
things that are similar in
some way, often used to
help explain something or
make it easier to
understand
_________________________________________________
Awv
7. What is the denotation (specific or literal meaning) of temperate in line 2?
How is this word appropriate to describe both a day in summer and a person?
________________________________
Temperate: calm, self restrained, neither hot or cold
8. What is the denotation of darling (3) in this context? ________
Darling: very dear or beloved
9. Explain the metaphor in line 4, “summer’s lease”. ____________
A lease is a contract with a beginning and end. Summer has a beginning and ending.
006 – Sonnet 18
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10. Now paraphrase quatrain 1.
The speaker asks whether he should compare his love to a summer day. He says she
is lovelier and more constant than summer. Summer has rough winds that shake the
beautiful and beloved early blooms of May. The time period of summer is too short.
The speaker enjoys summer, but considers it too short.
Quatrain 2
Line
5
6
7
8
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;
5
11. In line 5, what is the “eye of heaven”? ____________________
The sun
12. What is the pronoun his in line 6 referring to? _____________
The sun
13. How could the “eye of heaven” be dimmed? ________________
AWV – behind the clouds, going down at night…
14. How is the sun further personified in line 6? _______________
Sun is given a complexion (people have complexions)
15. Explain two possible meanings of the word fair in line 7. ______
Fair – good (ie weather – clear and sunny)
Fair – beautiful ( a person who is nice to look at can be called fair)
Fair – honest (someone who decides in an honest way…)
a. For each meaning you identified, explain how something that is fair
might “decline”.
-Weather can turn cold and rainy
-
A person’s beauty fades with time, or can be destroyed
-
A person who was honest may instead lie and cheat
006 – Sonnet 18
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16. Paraphrase quatrain 2. _______________________________
At times the sun is too hot or the weather gets cloudy. Everything beautiful, a person
or a day, will at some point lose its beauty and change for the worse – whether that
change is caused by misfortune, fate, or unbalanced events
Quatrain 3
Line
9
10
11
12
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
10
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
17. What word signals a shift in the poem? ___________________
but
a. The poem shifts from “a summers day” to ____________
His love
18. What word in line 1 is directly related to the word thy in line 9?
Thee
19. The speaker states that “thy eternal summer shall not fade”. What is
“eternal summer” a metaphor for? _________________
Eternal summer is a metaphor for his love’s beauty (your beauty will not fade)
20. How is death personified in line 11? ______________________
Death brags… this is a human trait
21. There is also a biblical allusion in line 11. Can you explain it? ___
The shade is the shadow of death. The Psalmist refers to “walking through the valley
of the shadow of death”
22. What are possible meanings for the word lines in line 12?
Lines = age lines in the face, lines of poetry
a. Which meaning is the most relevant and why? __________
Poetry lines are the most relevant because the speaker is declaring his love in
the sonnet
006 – Sonnet 18
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23. Paraphrase the 3rd Quatrain:
Your youth will not fade away, nor will you lose the beauty that you possess. Death
will not claim you for his own. You and the memory of you will never die because in my
lasting poetry you will live forever
The end of this poem is a couplet. A couplet is comprised of two lines of verse
that form a unit alone or as part of a poem, especially two that rhyme and have the
same meter.
Final Couplet:
Line
13
14
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this and this gives life to thee.
24. Paraphrase the final couplet: __________________________
As long as the human race exists, this poem will live on and make you immortal – you
will live on each time a person reads this poem
25. What does the final couplet reveal about the power of a literary work?
literature can live on long after its author is dead
The Theme of a work, in this case a poem, is its implied view of life and human
nature. It is the generalization about life at large that the piece leads the reader
to see.
26. Fill in the following blanks to make a statement about theme.
Sonnet 18, by William Shakespeare illustrates the eternal nature of love and how it
can be preserved through a work of art.
006 – Sonnet 18
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Use the sonnet graph below to graph the sonnet.
Instructions: Write one syllable in each of the boxes to show the iambic
pentameter of each line. In the last box, place the rhyme scheme letter for each
of the lines
KEY
˘
Line#
unstressed
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
/
stressed
˘
/
˘
˘
/
˘
/
/
Rhyme
letter
Shall
I
com-
pare
thee
to
a
sum-
mer’s
day?
a
Thou
art
more
love-
ly
and
more
tem-
per-
ate:
b
Rough
winds
do
shake
the
dar-
ling
buds
of
may,
a
And
sum-
mer’s
lease
hath
all
too
short
a
date;
b
Some-
time
too
hot
the
eye
of
sum-
mer
shines,
c
And
of-
ten
is
his
gold
com-
plex-
ion
dimmed:
d
And
ev-
ry
fair
from
fair
some-
time
de-
clines,
c
By
chance
or
na-
ture’s
chan-
ging
course
un-
trimmed.
d
But
thy
e-
ter-
nal
sum-
mer
shall
not
fade,
e
Nor
lose
pos-
ses-
sion
of
that
fair
thou
ow’st:
f
Nor
shall
death
brag
thou
wan-
der’st
in
his
shade,
e
When
in
e-
ter-
nal
lines
to
time
thou
grow’st:
f
So
long
as
men
can
breathe
or
eyes
can
see,
g
So
long
lives
this,
and
this
gives
life
to
thee.
g