s 1. Identify the quatrains. Quatrain 1 – lines 1-4 Quatrain 2 – lines 5-8 Quatrain 3 – lines 9-12 2. Identify the rhyming couplet.
Rhyming couplet – lines 13-14 3. What is the central idea contained in the three quatrains? The central idea is based on a comparison between the poet’s beloved and a summer’s day. Each quatrain introduces a new aspect to this comparison. Shakespeare argues that unlike the transient beauty and nature of summer, his beloved’s beauty and memory shall never fade.
4. How does the rhyming couplet clinch the premise contained in the quatrains? The rhyming couplet clinches the argument by claiming that the beloved has been immortalised through the sonnet. As long as the sonnet exists and is read, she will not fade from memory – she will live forever. Name three ways in which the poet’s beloved is better than a summer’s day. She is more equable and gentler than a summer’s day. Furthermore, unlike a summer’s day, her beauty will not fade.
2. What is meant by “Nor shall Death brag thou wander ” st in his shade” (line 11)? It means that she will never die as she has been immortalised in lines of poetry. 3. What impossible claim does Shakespeare seem to be making in lines 9-12? He claims that her beauty and youth will never fade and that she will live forever. 4.
How does he substantiate this claim? He substantiates the claim by saying that as long as time lasts, her beauty and memory will last, recorded in lines of poetry. 5. What does ‘this’ refer to in line 14? “this” refers to the sonnet.
The Essay on Sonnet 72 Summers Day
William Shakespeare Sonnet 18 Shall I compare thee to a summers day a Thou art more lovely and more temperate: b Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, a And summers lease hath all too short a date: b Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines c And often is his gold complexion dimmed, d And every fair from fair sometimes declines, c By chance, or natures changing course, untrimmed; d But ...
