ENG2602 PRESCRIBED POEMS (SOME) ANALYSIS FOR 2017
It only has an analysis of some of the poems
Sonnet 18 – William Shakespeare
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Shall I compare you to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate: You are more lovely and more constant:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of Rough winds shake the beloved buds of
May, May
And summer's lease hath all too short a And summer is far too short:
date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven At times the sun is too hot,
shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd; Or often goes behind the clouds;
And every fair from fair sometime declines, And everything beautiful sometime will
lose its beauty,
By chance, or nature's changing course, By misfortune or by nature's planned out
untrimm'd; course.
But thy eternal summer shall not fade But your youth shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st; Nor will you lose the beauty that you
possess;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his Nor will death claim you for his own,
shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st; Because in my eternal verse you will live
forever.
So long as men can breathe or eyes can So long as there are people on this earth,
see,
So long lives this and this gives life to So long will this poem live on, making you
thee. immortal.
1
,ENG2602 PRESCRIBED POEMS (SOME) ANALYSIS FOR 2017
Notes
temperate (1): i.e., evenly-tempered; not overcome by passion.
the eye of heaven (5): i.e., the sun.
every fair from fair sometime declines (7): i.e., the beauty (fair) of everything beautiful (fair) will
fade (declines). Compare to Sonnet 116: "rosy lips and cheeks/Within his bending sickle's
compass come."
nature's changing course (8): i.e., the natural changes age brings.
that fair thou ow'st (10): i.e., that beauty you possess.
in eternal lines...growest (12): The poet is using a grafting metaphor in this line. Grafting is a
technique used to join parts from two plants with cords so that they grow as one. Thus the beloved
becomes immortal, grafted to time with the poet's cords (his "eternal lines"). For commentary on
whether this sonnet is really "one long exercise in self-glorification", please see below.
Sonnet 18 is the best known and most well-loved of all 154 sonnets. It is also one of the most
straightforward in language and intent. The stability of love and its power to immortalize the
subject of the poet's verse is the theme.
The poet starts the praise of his dear friend without ostentation, but he slowly builds the image of
his friend into that of a perfect being. His friend is first compared to summer in the octave, but, at
the start of the third quatrain (9), he is summer, and thus, he has metamorphosed into the
standard by which true beauty can and should be judged.
The poet's only answer to such profound joy and beauty is to ensure that his friend be forever in
human memory, saved from the oblivion that accompanies death. He achieves this through his
verse, believing that, as history writes itself, his friend will become one with time. The final couplet
reaffirms the poet's hope that as long as there is breath in mankind, his poetry too will live on, and
ensure the immortality of his muse.
2
,ENG2602 PRESCRIBED POEMS (SOME) ANALYSIS FOR 2017
Interestingly, not everyone is willing to accept the role of Sonnet 18 as the ultimate English love
poem. As James Boyd-White puts it: What kind of love does 'this' in fact give to 'thee'? We know
nothing of the beloved’s form or height or hair or eyes or bearing, nothing of her character or mind,
nothing of her at all, really.
This 'love poem' is actually written not in praise of the beloved, as it seems, but in praise of itself.
Death shall not brag, says the poet; the poet shall brag. This famous sonnet is on this view one
long exercise in self-glorification, not a love poem at all; surely not suitable for earnest recitation at
a wedding or anniversary party, or in a Valentine. (142)
Note that James Boyd-White refers to the beloved as "her", but it is almost universally accepted by
scholars that the poet's love interest is a young man in sonnets 1-126.
Sonnets 18-25 are often discussed as a group, as they all focus on the poet's affection for his
friend.
Summary
The speaker opens the poem with a question addressed to the beloved: “Shall I compare thee to a
summer’s day?” The next eleven lines are devoted to such a comparison. In line 2 , the speaker
stipulates what mainly differentiates the young man from the summer’s day: he is “more lovely and
more temperate.” Summer’s days tend toward extremes: they are shaken by “rough winds”; in
them, the sun (“the eye of heaven”) often shines “too hot,” or too dim. And summer is fleeting: its
date is too short, and it leads to the withering of autumn, as “every fair from fair sometime
declines.” The final quatrain of the sonnet tells how the beloved differs from the summer in that
respect: his beauty will last forever (“Thy eternal summer shall not fade...”) and never die. In the
couplet, the speaker explains how 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.”
Commentary
This sonnet is certainly the most famous in the sequence of Shakespeare’s sonnets; it may be the
most famous lyric poem in English. Among Shakespeare’s works, only lines such as “To be or not
to be” and “Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?” are better-known. This is not to say that
it is at all the best or most interesting or most beautiful of the sonnets; but the simplicity and
loveliness of its praise of the beloved has guaranteed its place.
3
, ENG2602 PRESCRIBED POEMS (SOME) ANALYSIS FOR 2017
On the surface, the poem is simply a statement of praise about the beauty of the beloved; summer
tends to unpleasant extremes of windiness and heat, but the beloved is always mild and
temperate. Summer is incidentally personified as the “eye of heaven” with its “gold complexion”;
the imagery throughout is simple and unaffected, with the “darling buds of May” giving way to the
“eternal summer”, which the speaker promises the beloved. The language, too, is comparatively
unadorned for the sonnets; it is not heavy with alliteration or assonance, and nearly every line is its
own self-contained clause—almost every line ends with some punctuation, which effects a pause.
Sonnet 18 is the first poem in the sonnets not to explicitly encourage the young man to have
children. The “procreation” sequence of the first 1 7 sonnets ended with the speaker’s realization
that the young man might not need children to preserve his beauty; he could also live, the speaker
writes at the end of Sonnet 1 7 , “in my rhyme.” Sonnet1 8 , then, is the first “rhyme”—the speaker’s
first attempt to preserve the young man’s beauty for all time. An important theme of the sonnet (as
it is an important theme throughout much of the sequence) is the power of the speaker’s poem to
defy time and last forever, carrying the beauty of the beloved down to future generations. The
beloved’s “eternal summer” shall not fade precisely because it is embodied in the sonnet: “So long
as men can breathe or eyes can see,” the speaker writes in the couplet, “So long lives this, and
this gives life to thee.”
Sonnet 18 Summary
The speaker begins by asking whether he should or will compare "thee" to a summer day. He says
that his beloved is more lovely and more even-tempered. He then runs off a list of reasons why
summer isn’t all that great: winds shake the buds that emerged in Spring, summer ends too
quickly, and the sun can get too hot or be obscured by clouds.
He goes on, saying that everything beautiful eventually fades by chance or by nature’s inevitable
changes. Coming back to the beloved, though, he argues that his or her summer (or happy,
beautiful years)won’t go away, nor will his or her beauty fade away. Moreover, death will never be
able to take the beloved, since the beloved exists in eternal lines (meaning poetry). The speaker
concludes that as long as humans exist and can see (so as to read), the poem he’s writing will live
on, allowing the beloved to keep living as well.
4
It only has an analysis of some of the poems
Sonnet 18 – William Shakespeare
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Shall I compare you to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate: You are more lovely and more constant:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of Rough winds shake the beloved buds of
May, May
And summer's lease hath all too short a And summer is far too short:
date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven At times the sun is too hot,
shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd; Or often goes behind the clouds;
And every fair from fair sometime declines, And everything beautiful sometime will
lose its beauty,
By chance, or nature's changing course, By misfortune or by nature's planned out
untrimm'd; course.
But thy eternal summer shall not fade But your youth shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st; Nor will you lose the beauty that you
possess;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his Nor will death claim you for his own,
shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st; Because in my eternal verse you will live
forever.
So long as men can breathe or eyes can So long as there are people on this earth,
see,
So long lives this and this gives life to So long will this poem live on, making you
thee. immortal.
1
,ENG2602 PRESCRIBED POEMS (SOME) ANALYSIS FOR 2017
Notes
temperate (1): i.e., evenly-tempered; not overcome by passion.
the eye of heaven (5): i.e., the sun.
every fair from fair sometime declines (7): i.e., the beauty (fair) of everything beautiful (fair) will
fade (declines). Compare to Sonnet 116: "rosy lips and cheeks/Within his bending sickle's
compass come."
nature's changing course (8): i.e., the natural changes age brings.
that fair thou ow'st (10): i.e., that beauty you possess.
in eternal lines...growest (12): The poet is using a grafting metaphor in this line. Grafting is a
technique used to join parts from two plants with cords so that they grow as one. Thus the beloved
becomes immortal, grafted to time with the poet's cords (his "eternal lines"). For commentary on
whether this sonnet is really "one long exercise in self-glorification", please see below.
Sonnet 18 is the best known and most well-loved of all 154 sonnets. It is also one of the most
straightforward in language and intent. The stability of love and its power to immortalize the
subject of the poet's verse is the theme.
The poet starts the praise of his dear friend without ostentation, but he slowly builds the image of
his friend into that of a perfect being. His friend is first compared to summer in the octave, but, at
the start of the third quatrain (9), he is summer, and thus, he has metamorphosed into the
standard by which true beauty can and should be judged.
The poet's only answer to such profound joy and beauty is to ensure that his friend be forever in
human memory, saved from the oblivion that accompanies death. He achieves this through his
verse, believing that, as history writes itself, his friend will become one with time. The final couplet
reaffirms the poet's hope that as long as there is breath in mankind, his poetry too will live on, and
ensure the immortality of his muse.
2
,ENG2602 PRESCRIBED POEMS (SOME) ANALYSIS FOR 2017
Interestingly, not everyone is willing to accept the role of Sonnet 18 as the ultimate English love
poem. As James Boyd-White puts it: What kind of love does 'this' in fact give to 'thee'? We know
nothing of the beloved’s form or height or hair or eyes or bearing, nothing of her character or mind,
nothing of her at all, really.
This 'love poem' is actually written not in praise of the beloved, as it seems, but in praise of itself.
Death shall not brag, says the poet; the poet shall brag. This famous sonnet is on this view one
long exercise in self-glorification, not a love poem at all; surely not suitable for earnest recitation at
a wedding or anniversary party, or in a Valentine. (142)
Note that James Boyd-White refers to the beloved as "her", but it is almost universally accepted by
scholars that the poet's love interest is a young man in sonnets 1-126.
Sonnets 18-25 are often discussed as a group, as they all focus on the poet's affection for his
friend.
Summary
The speaker opens the poem with a question addressed to the beloved: “Shall I compare thee to a
summer’s day?” The next eleven lines are devoted to such a comparison. In line 2 , the speaker
stipulates what mainly differentiates the young man from the summer’s day: he is “more lovely and
more temperate.” Summer’s days tend toward extremes: they are shaken by “rough winds”; in
them, the sun (“the eye of heaven”) often shines “too hot,” or too dim. And summer is fleeting: its
date is too short, and it leads to the withering of autumn, as “every fair from fair sometime
declines.” The final quatrain of the sonnet tells how the beloved differs from the summer in that
respect: his beauty will last forever (“Thy eternal summer shall not fade...”) and never die. In the
couplet, the speaker explains how 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.”
Commentary
This sonnet is certainly the most famous in the sequence of Shakespeare’s sonnets; it may be the
most famous lyric poem in English. Among Shakespeare’s works, only lines such as “To be or not
to be” and “Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?” are better-known. This is not to say that
it is at all the best or most interesting or most beautiful of the sonnets; but the simplicity and
loveliness of its praise of the beloved has guaranteed its place.
3
, ENG2602 PRESCRIBED POEMS (SOME) ANALYSIS FOR 2017
On the surface, the poem is simply a statement of praise about the beauty of the beloved; summer
tends to unpleasant extremes of windiness and heat, but the beloved is always mild and
temperate. Summer is incidentally personified as the “eye of heaven” with its “gold complexion”;
the imagery throughout is simple and unaffected, with the “darling buds of May” giving way to the
“eternal summer”, which the speaker promises the beloved. The language, too, is comparatively
unadorned for the sonnets; it is not heavy with alliteration or assonance, and nearly every line is its
own self-contained clause—almost every line ends with some punctuation, which effects a pause.
Sonnet 18 is the first poem in the sonnets not to explicitly encourage the young man to have
children. The “procreation” sequence of the first 1 7 sonnets ended with the speaker’s realization
that the young man might not need children to preserve his beauty; he could also live, the speaker
writes at the end of Sonnet 1 7 , “in my rhyme.” Sonnet1 8 , then, is the first “rhyme”—the speaker’s
first attempt to preserve the young man’s beauty for all time. An important theme of the sonnet (as
it is an important theme throughout much of the sequence) is the power of the speaker’s poem to
defy time and last forever, carrying the beauty of the beloved down to future generations. The
beloved’s “eternal summer” shall not fade precisely because it is embodied in the sonnet: “So long
as men can breathe or eyes can see,” the speaker writes in the couplet, “So long lives this, and
this gives life to thee.”
Sonnet 18 Summary
The speaker begins by asking whether he should or will compare "thee" to a summer day. He says
that his beloved is more lovely and more even-tempered. He then runs off a list of reasons why
summer isn’t all that great: winds shake the buds that emerged in Spring, summer ends too
quickly, and the sun can get too hot or be obscured by clouds.
He goes on, saying that everything beautiful eventually fades by chance or by nature’s inevitable
changes. Coming back to the beloved, though, he argues that his or her summer (or happy,
beautiful years)won’t go away, nor will his or her beauty fade away. Moreover, death will never be
able to take the beloved, since the beloved exists in eternal lines (meaning poetry). The speaker
concludes that as long as humans exist and can see (so as to read), the poem he’s writing will live
on, allowing the beloved to keep living as well.
4
