Poetry: Shall I Compare thee to a summer's day?
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Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day?
by William Shakespeare
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.
by William Shakespeare
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.
Questions
1. Sonnet 18 is one of the most famous poems in the English language. Why do you think this is the case? How does the speaker use natural imagery to create a picture of the young woman’s beauty?
2. In Shakespeare's day, poets often made extravagant claims about the person they loved. What extravagant claim does the author make in the first line of the poem? Can you think of an extravengant line someone might say to someone they love? (Example: Your father must have been a thief because he stole the stars and put them in your eyes).
3. In the next line, what two general reasons does he give for rejecting this comparison?
4. According to line 7-8, what might happen to any kind of beauty?
5. What is a quatrain? Look up the definition.
6. In the third quatrain (line 9-12), the speaker makes a daring statement to his lover. What does he claim will never happen?
1. Sonnet 18 is one of the most famous poems in the English language. Why do you think this is the case? How does the speaker use natural imagery to create a picture of the young woman’s beauty?
2. In Shakespeare's day, poets often made extravagant claims about the person they loved. What extravagant claim does the author make in the first line of the poem? Can you think of an extravengant line someone might say to someone they love? (Example: Your father must have been a thief because he stole the stars and put them in your eyes).
3. In the next line, what two general reasons does he give for rejecting this comparison?
4. According to line 7-8, what might happen to any kind of beauty?
5. What is a quatrain? Look up the definition.
6. In the third quatrain (line 9-12), the speaker makes a daring statement to his lover. What does he claim will never happen?