Friends and Flatterers by William Shakespeare

Sonnet 18: 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 ow’st;

Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade,

When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,

So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

The Translation of the poem:

shall I compare you to a summer day?

you're lovelier and milder

Rough winds shake the pretty buds of may

and summer doesn't last

nearly long enough sometime the

sun shines too hot, and often its

golden face is darkened by clouds.

and everything beautiful stops being

beautiful either by accident or

simply in the course of nature. but

your eternal summer will never fade.

nor will you loose possession of your 

beauty nor shall death brag that you are 

wandering in the underworld.

once you're capture in my eternal 

verses as long as men are alive and 

have eyes with which to see, this

poem will live and keep you alive.

Anaysis:

     This Sonnet 18 is the most famous one of Shakespeare's sonnets.  The simplicity and loveliness of its praise of the beloved has guaranteed its place.

    The poem opens with a question addressed to the beloved.  In Line Two, the speaker wonders what mainly differentiate the young man from the summer's day.  He is more lovely and more temperate. This sonnet focuses on the loveliness of a friend or lover. The speaker first asks a rhetorical question comparing them to  a summer's day. He then goes on with pros and cons of the weather from an English summer's day to a less welcome dimmed sun and rough winds. In the end it is the poetry that will keep the lover alive for every defying even death.

     The opening lines compares his lover with a summer's day.  The second line refers directly to the lover with the use of second person pronoun "thou" lines three to eight concentrate on, up and downs of the weather and are distanced, taken a long steady rhythm.  Summer time in England is a crucial hit, wind blows, rain clouds gather.  The season seems too short but people tend to moan when it is too hot and grumble when it is overcast.

     In line 9-12 the speaker states with all assurance that  'thy eternal' summer shall not fade' and that his lover shall stay fair and even cheat  death and time by becoming eternal.

     In lines 13 to 14,It gives the idea that the speaker's (the poet's) poem will grantee the lover remain young the beloved's beauty will accomplish this feat and not perish because it is preserved in the poem, which will last forever.it will live'as long as men can breathe or eyes can see."

Literary Devices:

    Assonance and repetition: Resemblance of sound between syllables of nearby words,arising particularly from the rhyming of two or more stressed vowels are called Assonance. There are interesting combination within each line, which add to the texture.  Ex: Rough/buds, shake/may, hot/heaven, eye/shines, often/gold/chance/nature.

   The lover's beauty metaphorically an eternal summer, will be preserved for ever in the poet's immortal lines.

    Final two lines are harmony itself.  The comma sorts out the syntax, leaving everything in balance giving life. such literary powers are strong enough to preserve the beauty of the work.  The very Shall and the different tone it brings to separate lines.  Shall in the first line refers o the uncertainty of the speaker. Shall in the line 3 is a sort of definite promise, But line 11 conveys the idea of a command for death to remain silent.

     Instead of "Beauty", both summer and fair are used instead Thy,Thou and Thee are used to refer to the lover, the fair youth  And/Nor/ so long 

    Sonnet 18 is fourteen lines in lenth, made up of a three quatrains and a couplet. It has a regular rhyme scheme ABAB,CDCD,EFEF,GG.

    sonnet 18 is written in traditional iambic pentameter. some lines are pure iambic following no stress syllable followed on a stressed syllable, others are not.

    The Metaphor: A metaphor is a comparison between two things that states one thing is another, in order help explain an idea or show hidden similarities. (eye of heaven) for the fun. summer is personified as the eye of heaven with its gold complexion.  The imagery is simple and unaffected with the 'darling buds of many' giving way to "eternal summer"  every line ends with some punctuation which gives a pause.  And important theme is the power of the speaker's poem to defy time and last for ever carrying the beauty for future Generations.