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.
1. What is the rhyme scheme? Use letters to mark the rhyme next to
the poem. Use a new letter for each new sound. (ab…)
2. The rhyme scheme defines the stanzas- mark the end of each
stanza with a line.
3. How is this poem different in structure from a Petrarchan sonnet?
4. In what way/s is it similar to the Petrarchan sonnet form?
5. Why might a lover compare a beloved to a summer’s day?
6. What reasons does the speaker give for NOT comparing the
beloved to a summer’s day?
7. What does Shakespeare mean by “lines” in line 12?
8. What does he refer to with the word “this” in line 14?
9. As long as people read this poem, what is true of the beloved?
10.
How else might someone immortalize someone?
SONNET 29
When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possess'd,
Desiring this man's art and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;
For thy sweet love remember'd such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.
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6.
How is the speaker of this poem feeling about himself?
What might have happened to make the speaker feel this way?
What does the speaker wish?
What does he envy in others?
What makes the speaker feel ok again, or even good again?
Does it seem that the person to whom the sonnet is addressed is still in the speaker’s
life? Justify.
7.
That’s a lark. Why might Shakespeare have chosen this bird, at dawn,
as a simile for how the memory of the beloved makes him feel?
8. How has the speaker’s attitude changed by the last line of the poem (HAS IT?)?
Explain.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-J9MBg7aIo
SONNET 130
My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damask'd, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.
1. Is she really offensive, based on the description? Explain.
2. Why do you think the speaker loves her anyway? Or, perhaps even
more than he would if she looked differently.
3. This poem is not actually directly addressed to the woman he talks
of; who might it be addressed to?
4. Why might someone feel the need to write such a poem about his
beloved? What does this tell us about society, the speaker, etc.?
THEN: Write your own Shakespearean Sonnet- Mimic either Sonnet 130 or Sonnet 29.
SONNET 30
When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
I summon up remembrance of things past,
I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,
And with old woes new wail my dear time's waste:
Then can I drown an eye, unused to flow,
For precious friends hid in death's dateless night,
And weep afresh love's long since cancell'd woe,
And moan the expense of many a vanish'd sight:
Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,
And heavily from woe to woe tell o'er
The sad account of fore-bemoaned moan,
Which I new pay as if not paid before.
But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,
All losses are restored and sorrows end. .
PARAPHRASE
When in these sessions of gratifying silent thought
I think of the past,
I lament my failure to achieve all that I wanted,
And I sorrowfully remember that I wasted the best years of my life:
Then I can cry, although I am not used to crying,
For dear friends now hid in death's unending night,
And cry again over woes that were long since healed,
And lament the loss of many things that I have seen and loved:
Then can I grieve over past griefs again,
And sadly repeat (to myself) my woes
The sorrowful account of griefs already grieved for,
Which (the account) I repay as if I had not paid before.
But if I think of you while I am in this state of sadness, dear friend,
All my losses are compensated for and my sorrow ends
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What is the difference between the paraphrase and the poem? (Content/ effect)
How is this poem similar to Sonnet 29?
How is the poem different?
What concrete images are used in this poem?
What is the solution, posed in the couplet at the end?
What is the overall tone of this poem?
How does the tone of this poem compare to Sonnet 18, 29, and 130?