Sonnet XVIII (To his Love) by William Shakespeare: 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 wander ” st 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. This is one of the most famous of all the sonnets, justifiably so. But it would be a mistake to take it entirely in isolation, for it links in with so many of the other sonnets through the themes of the descriptive power of verse; the ability of the poet to depict the fair youth adequately, or not; and the immortality conveyed through being hymned in these ‘eternal lines’. It is noticeable that here the poet is full of confidence that his verse will live as long as there are people drawing breath upon the earth, whereas later he apologises for his poor wit and his humble lines which are inadequate to encompass all the youth’s excellence.
The Essay on Summer Day Shakespeare Line Woman
Summertime Blues Amazing authors can induce thoughts by a single word. The ideas that can form in our heads by a small phrase are powerful. Only the most talented and capable authors can provoke such feelings within us. Who is more than able to stir these feelings in a reader but William Shakespeare His various plays keep us entranced and curious but it is his poetry that strikes a chord deep ...
Now, perhaps in the early days of his love, there is no such self-doubt and the eternal summer of the youth is preserved forever in the poet’s lines. The poem also works at a rather curious level of achieving its objective through dispraise. The summer’s day is found to be lacking in so many respects (too short, too hot, too rough, sometimes too dingy), but curiously enough one is left with the abiding impression that ‘the lovely boy’ is in fact like a summer’s day at its best, fair, warm sunny, temperate, one of the darling buds of May, and that all his beauty has been wonderfully highlighted by the comparison. 1. Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day 1. This is taken usually to mean ‘What if I were to compare thee etc’ The stock comparisons of the loved one to all the beauteous things in nature hover in the background throughout.
2. Thou art more lovely and more temperate: 2. The youth’s beauty is more perfect than the beauty of a summer day, more temperate – more gentle, more restrained, whereas the summer’s day might have violent excesses in store, such as are about to be described. 3. Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, 3.
May was a summer month in Shakespeare’s time, because the calendar in use lagged behind the true sidereal calendar by at least a fortnight, darling buds of May – the beautiful, much loved buds of the early summer; favourite flowers. 4. And summer’s lease hath all too short a date: 4. Legal terminology. The summer holds a lease on part of the year, but the lease is too short, and has an early termination (date).
5.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, 5. Sometime = on occasion, sometimes; the eye of heaven = the sun. 6. And often is his gold complexion dimmed, 6.
his gold complexion = his (the sun’s) golden face. It would be dimmed by clouds and on overcast days generally. 7. And every fair from fair sometime declines, 7. All beautiful things (every fair) occasionally become inferior in comparison with their essential previous state of beauty (from fair).
They all decline from perfection.
8. By chance, or nature’s changing course untrimmed: 8. By chance accidents, or by the fluctuating tides of nature, which are not subject to control, nature’s changing course untrimmed, untrimmed – this can refer to the ballast (trimming) on a ship which keeps it stable; or to a lack of ornament and decoration. The greater difficulty however is to decide which noun this adjectival participle should modify.
The Essay on Thou Summer Fair Found
I've been waiting all my life, For someone just like you, Someone to bring me up, Not put me down, Take my heart, And turn my life around, I've taken chances, With romances, Once or twice, They were everything opposite of nice, I found a treasure, But it broke in two, I found someone that was... OK... Then I found you, And you took my breath away, I didn't have to take another look, You were ...
Does it refer to nature, or chance, or every fair in the line above, or to the effect of nature’s changing course If one adds a comma after course, which probably has the effect of directing the word towards all possible antecedents. It would points out that nature’s changing course could refer to women’s monthly courses, or menstruation, in which case every fair in the previous line would refer to every fair woman, with the implication that the youth is free of this cyclical curse, and is therefore more perfect. 9. But thy eternal summer shall not fade, 9. Referring forwards to the eternity promised by the ever living poet in the next few lines, through his verse. 10.
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow ” st, 10. Nor shall it (your eternal summer) lose its hold on that beauty which you so richly possess. ow ” st = own est, possess. By metonymy we understand ‘nor shall you lose any of your beauty’. 11. Nor shall death brag thou wander ” st in his shade, 11.
Several half echoes here. The biblical ones are probably ‘Oh death where is thy sting Or grave thy victory’ implying that death normally boasts of his conquests over life. And Psalms 23. 3.
: ‘Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil ‘ In classical literature the shades flitted helplessly in the underworld like gibbering ghosts. Shakespeare would have been familiar with this through Virgil’s account of Aeneas’ descent into the underworld in Aeneid Bk. VI. 12. When in eternal lines to time thou grow ” st, 12. in eternal lines = in the undying lines of my verse.
Perhaps with a reference to progeny, and lines of descent, but it seems that the procreation theme has already been abandoned. to time thou grow ” st – you keep pace with time, you grow as time grows. 13. So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, 13. For as long as humans live and breathe upon the earth, for as long as there are seeing eyes on the earth. 14.
The Essay on Life After Death 6
The Afterlife is an area of human consciousness we all enter upon leaving the physical world at physical death. Throughout history we've questioned if there is a life after death. Along the way, our religions and various philosophers offered beliefs and opinions to answer this commonly asked question. However, many of the answers contradict each other making it hard to figure out. "Belief in life ...
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. 14. That is how long these verses will live, celebrating you, and continually renewing your life. But one is left with a slight residual feeling that perhaps the youth’s beauty will last no longer than a summer’s day, despite the poet’s proud boast.
