Sonnet 18:
Shall I compare thee
to a Summer’s Day?
By William Shakespeare
The Ultimate Love poem?
SONNET
• Poetry form that began in 13th C.
Means ‘little song’ (Italian
sonnetto)
• Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets!
• Sonnet 18 is his most famous
Shakespearean sonnets:
• 14 lines
• Formed of 12 lines of ABAB/
CDCD/ EFEF ends with a
rhyming couplet GG
• iambic pentameter
Two groups of sonnets
• 154 Sonnets divided into 2 groups:
a) 126 sonnets addressed to a YOUNG, good-
looking MAN (Fair Youth)
b) 28 sonnets addressed to a mysterious
DARK LADY
Shakespeare’s BELOVED
‘FAIR YOUTH’
• Sonnets 1-126 - to an unnamed young man, Mr
W.H. Some think it was a nobleman, the Earl of
Southampton (his patron) – but we don’t know.
• Platonic love (? Or not?)
The love I dedicate to
your lordship is without
end ... What I have
done is yours; what I
have to do is yours;
being part in all I have,
devoted yours."
LEFT: Shakespeare
RIGHT: Henry
Wriothesley, Earl of
Southampton.
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.
• 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.
1st quatrain
Shall I compare thee to a Should I compare you to a
summer’s day? summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and The youth’s beauty is more
more temperate: gentle and restrained than
the beauty of a summer day.
Rough winds do shake the Strong winds shake the
darling buds of may beautiful bud of the early
summer
Summer has a deadline
And summer’s lease hath all
which is too short
too short a date
(LEASE: legal terminology)
2nd quatrain
Sometime too hot the eye of Sometimes the sun shines too
heaven shines hot
And often is his gold And his golden face is often
complexion dimmed obscured
And every fair from fair All beautiful things
sometime decline occasionally become inferior in
comparison with their
essential previous state of
beauty
By chance, or nature’s changing By chance or by the changing
course untrimmed course of the nature without
ornaments
3 quatrain
rd
But thy eternal summer But your eternal summer
shall not fade shall not die
Nor lose possession of that Nor shall it lose its hold on
fair thou ow’st that beauty which you so
richly possess
Nor shall death brag thou And you will never die
wander’st in his shade
When in eternal lines to As you will live on my
time thou grow’st enduring poetry
Final couplet
As long as people live and
So long as men can breathe, as long as eyes can
breathe, or eyes can see it
see
That is how long these
So long lives this, and verses will live, celebrating
you , and continually
this gives life to thee. 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 rhetorical 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.
Sonnet in plain ENGLISH
• At times the sun is too hot,
• Or often goes behind the clouds;
• And everything beautiful sometime will lose its beauty
• By chance or by nature's planned out course.
• But your youthful beauty shall not fade,
• Nor will you lose the beauty that you possess;
• Nor will death claim you for his own,
• Because in my eternal verse you will live forever.
• So long as there are people on this earth,
• So long will this poem live on, making you immortal.
Another plain English version
• Who says you're like one of the dog days?
You're nicer. And better.
Even in May, the weather can be gray,
And a summer sub-let doesn't last forever.
Sometimes the sun's too hot;
Sometimes it is not.
Who can stay young forever?
People break their necks or just drop dead!
But you? Never!
If there's just one condensed reader left
Who can figure out the abridged alphabet,
After you're dead and gone,
• In this poem you'll live on!
(Howard Moss)
COPY / COMPLETE
& CHOOSE THE CORRECT ANSWER
COMMENTARY
The poet believes his beloved is as lovely as /
lovelier than a Summer’s day. This is because
sometimes summer is [select all those that apply!]
changeable/full of flowers/windy/cloudy/rainy
/wet/hot /too hot/ too short. By line 9 he is
referring to his friend as Death/Eternal Summer,
which shows he sees him as the standard of
beautiful things. He goes onto say that, unlike
the season of summer, his beloved’s beauty will
fade/die/never fade because he will live on in this
poem.
