006 – Sonnet 18 7 KEY
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)
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 / AWVTouch / 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
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, 5
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; 10
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.
First. Let’s analyze it by quatrains, to help us understand what is going on.
Quatrain 1
Line 1 Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
2 Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
3 Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
4 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. ______
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.
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 Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, 5
6 And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
7 And every fair from fair sometime declines,
8 By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;
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
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 But thy eternal summer shall not fade
10 Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest; 10
11 Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
12 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
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 So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
14 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.
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 / /
stressed / ˘ / / / ˘ / / / ˘ / / / ˘ / / / Rhyme letter
1 / Shall / I / com- / pare / thee / to / a / sum- / mer’s / day? / a
2 / Thou / art / more / love- / ly / and / more / tem- / per- / ate: / b
3 / Rough / winds / do / shake / the / dar- / ling / buds / of / may, / a
4 / And / sum- / mer’s / lease / hath / all / too / short / a / date; / b
5 / Some- / time / too / hot / the / eye / of / sum- / mer / shines, / c
6 / And / of- / ten / is / his / gold / com- / plex- / ion / dimmed: / d
7 / And / ev- / ry / fair / from / fair / some- / time / de- / clines, / c
8 / By / chance / or / na- / ture’s / chan- / ging / course / un- / trimmed. / d
9 / But / thy / e- / ter- / nal / sum- / mer / shall / not / fade, / e
10 / Nor / lose / pos- / ses- / sion / of / that / fair / thou / ow’st: / f
11 / Nor / shall / death / brag / thou / wan- / der’st / in / his / shade, / e
12 / When / in / e- / ter- / nal / lines / to / time / thou / grow’st: / f
13 / So / long / as / men / can / breathe / or / eyes / can / see, / g
14 / So / long / lives / this, / and / this / gives / life / to / thee. / g