Sunrise Language School
Sonnet 18
By: William Shakespeare
Quatrain 1:
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? [a]
Thou art more lovely and more temperate: [b]
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, [a]
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date: [b]
Vocabulary:
Thee: you
Temperate: moderate, mild
Rough: wild, not soft
Buds: young rolled-up flowers or leaves before they open
Lease: rent
Hath: has
Date: time
Paraphrase:
Shakespeare begins his sonnet asking whether he should compare his beloved to a summer’s
day. The answer comes immediately: his beloved is more beautiful and more delightful. Then
the poet begins to point out the imperfections of summer. He says that even in May, it is
sometimes windy, and the strong winds shake the small buds.Moreover, summer doesn’t last
for long it is far too short and gives way to the other seasons.
Figures of Speech:
1-Metaphor:
Line 4: “And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.”
-Summer is compared to something leased for a short time.
2-Repetation:
Line 2: “Thou art more lovely and more temperate.”
The word more is repeated twice.
3-Contrast:
1-2 “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”
“Thou art more lovely and more temperate.”
The image of hot summer is contrasted with the delightful image of his beloved.
Line 4: “And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.”
The image of a short summer is contrasted with the everlasting memory of his beloved.
Quatrain 2:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, [ c]
And often is his gold complexion dimm’d: [d]
And every fair from fair sometime declines, [c]
By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimmed, [d]
Vocabulary:
Eye of heaven: the sun
Dimmed: made not bright
Complexion: the natural colour of the skin, especially of the face.
Fair: beauty, beautiful thing
Decays: goes away
Untrimmed: deprived of beauty, unpleasant.
Paraphrase:
The second quatrain continues to develop the argument and discusses the flaws of the
summer, which is described as a season of extremes and disappointments. A summer’s day is
ruined when the sun shines too brightly and makes the weather too hot, or when the sun is
dimmed by clouds. This suggests that the sun is rarely or never in a desirable museum. A
summer’s day is finally darkened by night, and darkness replaces sunshine. The poet states
that every beautiful creature will eventually lose its beauty, either through some accident or
because it’s natural for all living things to grow and die.
Figures of speech:
1-Metaphor:
Line 5: “Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines”
The sun is likened to the eye of heaven.
2-Personification:
Line 5: “Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines”
Heaven is personified as a human being who can see.
Line 6: “And often is his gold complexion dimm’d”
The sun is personified as a human being with a face and complexion.
3-Alliteration:
“And-every fair from fair sometime declines.”
The consonant sound “f” is repeated in “fair”,”from”, and “fair”
4-Repetition:
Line 7: “And-every fair from fair sometime declines.”
The word “fair” is repeated twice.
Quatrain 3:
But thy eternal summer shall not fade, [ e]
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest: [f]
Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade, [e]
When in eternal lines to time thou growest: [f]
Vocabulary:
Thy: your
Fade: die, lose freshness and brightness
Lose possession: no longer have
Wander’st: walk, get lost
Eternal: lasting forever
Owest: have, own
Brag: boast, talk too proudly
Shade: shadow
Thou growest: you will have immortality, you continue to live.
Paraphrase:
In this quatrain, the poet states that the beauty of his beloved will last forever and is never
dimmed. Death will never be able to boast that it possesses his beloved, or that it takes her
under its power. Death will never claim her for its own. The reason is simple:the beauty of the
poet’s beloved will be immortalized in the lines of his sonnet.
Figures of Speech:
1-Metaphor:
Line 9: “ But thy eternal summer shall not fade,”
The poet compares the beauty of his beloved to summer
2-Personification:
Line 11” Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade,”
Death is described as a braggart, boasting of his power.
Alliteration:
Line 12:”When in eternal llines to time thou growest.”
The consonant sound “t” is repeated in “to” and “ time”
The heroic couplet:
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see [g]
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. [g]
Paraphrase:
The couplet confirms the poet’s belief in the immortality of both his poetry and his beloved.
The poet states that as long as there are people on this earth, both his verse and his beloved
will be linked together and will live forever.
Figures of speech:
1-Alliteration:
Line 14: “So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.”
The consonant sound “l” is repeated in “ long” , “lives”, and “life”
2-Repetation:
Lines 13&14: “So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,”
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.”
The phrase “so long” is repeated twice.
3-Hyperbole:
The poem is based on an extended hyperbole. Shakespeare says that the beauty of his
beloved outlasts and outshines a summer’s day and stands the test of time and death.
Commentary:
Sonnet 18 is divided into three quatrains and a couplet .So long as men can breathe, or eyes
can see. The poem presents a mood of admiration and confidence. The poet admires the
beauty of his beloved and describes it as ideal, perfect, and immortal.
-The main idea of sonnet 18 is in the first line:
“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”
-Then his answer to this question comes in the next line
“Thou art more lovely and more temperate”
-in the next 6 lines, the poet gives 4reasons for refusing the idea of making such comparison
:being windy, hot, cloudy and short.
-In the next 3 lines, he declares that his beloved’s youth and beauty will be eternal because
she will always be present in his poetry.
- In the last two lines [ the heroic couplet] the poet sums up the idea that his beloved will live
forever in the lines of his poetry.
-Shakespeare repeats some words to create musical sense and internal music as in “more”
Line 2 fair “lines 7&10 and “so long” in the heroic couplet.
