Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
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 dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimmed;But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
Nor shall death brag thou wand’rest 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.
Summary of Shall I compare Thee To a Summer’s Day?
- Popularity of “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”: This poem was written by William Shakespeare, a renowned English master. It was first published in 1609 in The Passionate Pilgrim. The poem discusses natural beauty and the capacity of poetry to render that beauty into everlasting beauty. It also reflects the writer’s attachment to the beautiful art of writing. It captures the harmony of man and nature.
- “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” As a Representative of Beauty: The poem is about love. It begins as the speaker praises his anonymous friend without ostentation, intending to present the image of a perfect being. First, he compares his friend with the summer season, keeping all of its attributes intact. Soon, he realizes that everything on the earth suffers a decline, and he wants his friend to live forever. So, he tries to preserve the beauty of his friend in his precious verses. These eternal verses will pass the gentle image of his friend to the coming generations.
- Major Themes in “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”: The stability of love, immortal beauty, and man versus nature are the poem’s central themes. Throughout the sonnet, the speaker compares the person to whom the poem is addressed with the inevitable, specific aspect of a summer day. The poem explores the phenomenon of beauty and the speaker’s sincere efforts to preserve this eternal joy in the form of a poetic piece. He makes efforts to ensure his friend will live in human memory forever, saved from the oblivion that accompanies death. He is going to achieve this through his verses, believing in this way, that his friend will become one with time.
Analysis of Literary Devices Used in Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
literary devices are modes that represent the writer’s unique ideas. Shakespeare too has used some literary devices to enrich the poem. The analysis is as follows,
- Assonance: Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in the same line. For example, the sound of /ou/ in “Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st”.
- Alliteration: Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds in the initials of two successive words. For example, the sound of /l/ in “So long lives this” and /t/ sound in “to Time thou grow’st.”
- Consonance: Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds in the same line. For example, as the sound of /r/ in “Nor shall death brag thou wand’rest in his shade” and the sound of /s/ in “So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.”
- Imagery: Imagery is used to make readers perceive things involving their five senses. For example, “Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May” and “But thy eternal summer shall not fade.”
- Personification: Personification is to give human qualities to inanimate objects. For example, “Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May.”
- Metaphor: It is a figure of speech in which an implied comparison is made between the objects that are different in nature. For example, “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” though it is somewhat interrogative.
- Rhetorical Question: Rhetorical question is a question that is not asked to receive an answer; it is just posed to make the point clear. Shakespeare states rhetorical questions in the first line of the poem to put emphasis on his point. For example, “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”
Analysis of Poetic Devices Used in Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Poetic and literary devices are the same, but a few are used only in poetry. Here is the analysis of some of the poetic devices used in this poem.
- Couplet: There are two constructive lines of verse in a couplet, usually in the same meter and joined by rhyme. This sonnet ends with a couplet, which usually reveals the central idea of the poem.
- End Rhyme: End Rhyme is used to make the stanza melodious. Shakespeare has used end rhyme in this poem such as; “see/thee”, “day/May”, “Temperate/date” and “shade/fade.”
- Iambic Pentameter: It is a type of meter having five iambs per line the poem follows iambic pentameter such as; “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”
- Sonnet: A sonnet is a fourteen-line poem usually written in iambic pentameter. This Shakespearean sonnet has its octave and sestet.
Quotes to be Used
These lines are useful for a speech delivered on the topic of Wonders of Nature.
“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.”
