SONNET 18
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
BACKGROUND
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▫ Poet: William Shakespeare
▫ Structure:
English/Elizabethan/Shakespeare
an sonnet
▫ Rhythm: Iambic pentameter
▫ Rhyme pattern: abab cdcd efef
gg
▫ Rhyme scheme: Alternate
rhyme and a couplet
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Summary of content:
The poet compares the speaker’s friend(beloved)
to a summer’s day.
He points out that the summer’s day is often
imperfect/lacking as it is sometimes too short,
too rough, too hot, too cloudy.
In contrast the friend has none of these
characteristics and is immortalised (to live
forever ) by the everlasting power of this poem.
The poem will forever praise the perfect friend
and through this the poet’s poetry will also last
forever.
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ELIZABETHAN / SHAKESPEARIAN SONNET
RHYME IAMBIC ONE STANZA
SCHEME PENTAMETER 14 Continuous lines,
ABAB; CDCD; EFEF; all in one stanza.
10 syllables in every line
GG (this tells us its of a Shakespearean sonnet.
Shakespearian). An unstressed syllable
(u) is followed by a
Three quatrains and
stressed syllable (/).
a Rhyming couplet
Which results in 5 pairs of
syllables —Which gives the
poem its Rhythm
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APOSTROPHE
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What is an apostrophe?
When a poet/writer speaks to
someone who is not there; they
use apostrophe
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THE POEM
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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 lease9
hath all too short
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
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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 11can breathe or eyes
1. Shall I compare thee to a Summer’s day?
RHETORICAL QUESTION
makes reader think.
METAPHOR
Creates a Metaphor
between summer and his
beloved.
Effectiveness: The beloved
is therefore beautiful,
comforting, overwhelming,
rich etc. (just like summer).
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2. Thou art more lovely and more
temperate:
LOVELY and TEMPERATE COLON
The speaker suggests an explanation follows
that his beloved is constant as to why she is more
and calm, not unpredictable lovely and temperate
and moody. The word than
‘temperate’ suggests
moderation, self control. He
has answered his own
question. She is more
loving, kind and more
perfect. ’Thou’
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3. Rough winds do shake the darling buds of
May,
He starts listing things about
summer that are bad, Summer days can be windy and
negative and imperfect. The rough, bringing rain. These
effect time has on things are rough winds cause harm in
negative. This is opposite of nature. Especially with the
the friend. ‘darling‘ (a term expressing love)
ROUGH WINDS The beloved is not rough, i.e.
can destroy the flowers. harsh, and destructive in the
DARLING BUDS way that the winds that damage
symbolize: beauty. the May buds are ‘rough’.
The beauty of summer is
not everlasting.
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4. And summer’s lease hath all too short a date;
LEASE
This is a contract where you
RENT (you do not own it)
something for a FIXED
PERIOD (it ends at a specific
time). This is a FINANCIAL term.
PERSONIFICATION
Summer is ‘leasing’ (human
quality) the earth for a
period.
Summer is too short.
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5. Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
METAPHOR
The sun is compared to the
eye of heaven which has a
dazzling appearance and
scorches (burns) the earth.
PERSONIFICATION
The sun has eyes (human
quality) that can look down
on the earth.
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6. And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
GOLD COMPLEXION
Sun’s rays
DIMMED
Clouds/sundown
Suns rays are blocked by
the clouds/
sun goes down
CONTRAST
the brightness of the sun
(hot eyes dazzling) and the
dark, clouded sky.
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7. And every fair from fair sometime declines,
FAIR
Fair is another word for
beauty. So the speaker says
that the beauty or fair(ness)
of everything that is fair
(beautiful) will die, wither or
fade (decline).
ALLITERATION
The repetition of the ‘f’
emphasises the fact that
everything fades with time.
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8. By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm'd;
CHANCE
CONSONANCE
Fate
chance, nature’s and
changing.
CHANGING COURSE
Time
UNTRIMMED
lack of ornament or
decoration
Beauty will fade either by
bad luck or by natural
causes as nature takes its
toll on you.
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9. But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Stating that your beauty will
never fade, you will remain
eternally youthful.
Eternal is also a play on
INTERNAL - inner beauty.
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10. Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;
You will not lose your
beauty, unlike summer - you
are better than summer.
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11. Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his
shade,
Death will not be able to claim you
(the beloved) The beloved won’t
die, because Shakespeare has
immortalised his beloved in the
poem.
SHADE
darkness
PERSONIFICATION
Death given the
quality of boasting.
Death usually brags about its
conquest over life
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12. When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:
METAPHOR
Poetry compared to eternal
lines.
His poetry will last forever
and you will last forever
(because the poem is about
you)
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13. So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
14. So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
REPETITION
Of the pronoun ‘this’ stresses the importance
that Shakespeare attaches to his own poetry
The tone is a bit smug here
For as long as people are alive and they can
read this poem
This poem will give you life.
Shakespeare's beloved has been eternalised
forever within the lines of this poem.
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ANSWERS
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1.1.1. English/Shakespearean Sonnet.
1.1.2. It consists of 14 lines, divided into three quatrains and a
couplet. Rhyme scheme is ABAB, CDCD, EFEF, GG
1.2 ANY TWO
It is changeable / not constant
The wind may blow at force
It is bound to end
The sun may be too hot
The sun may become obscured by clouds
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1.3.1 C) be everlasting.
1.3.2 We cannot stop fate / accidents scarring a person’s beauty.
1.4.1 Personification
1.4.2 Death is given the human characteristic of boasting. Death is
seen as an arrogant person who brags about his power to destroy
life.
1.5 ANY ONE
confident
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1.6 Theme of time
1.7 ANY RELEVANT ANSWER
Yes – the poem is still being read, the beloved has been
immortalised.
No – the focus is on the poem and the poet himself instead of the
beloved.
1.8 ANY RELEVANT ANSWER
AGREE – As long as a human is alive and observant this poem
will live on and make his love immortal
-His love will remain unchangeable through time.
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