Bhiksu University of Sri Lanka Anuradhapura External Degree Program

 

Bhiksu University of Sri Lanka

Anuradhapura

External Degree Program

English Literature

E/ENGL 1024

D.N. Aloysius

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Shall I Compare Thee to a summer’s Day-Sonnet 18

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 wand’rest 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.

 

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.”

This sonnet is certainly the most famous in the sequence of Shakespeare’s sonnets; it may be the most famous lyric poem in English. 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.

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 affects a pause.

Sonnet 18, 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" is perhaps the best known of all of Shakespeare's 154 sonnets, primarily due to the opening line, "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day," which every true romantic knows by heart. But, there is much more to this line than meets the eye, as you'll find out later in this analysis.

William Shakespeare's sonnets are world-renowned and are said to have been written for a "fair youth" (1–126) and a "dark lady" (127–54), but no one is totally certain for whom they were penned, as they include no definite names and no written evidence. Shakespeare may have been well known in his lifetime, but he was also very good at keeping secrets. The sonnets were first published in 1609, seven years before the Bard's death, and their remarkable quality has kept them in the public eye ever since. Their depth and range set Shakespeare apart from all other sonneteers.

"Sonnet 18" focuses on the loveliness of a friend or lover, with the speaker initially asking a rhetorical question about comparing their subject to a summer's day. He then goes on to introduce the pros and cons of the weather, mentioning both an idyllic English summer's day and the less-welcome dim sun and rough winds of autumn. In the end, it is insinuated this very piece of poetry will keep the lover—the poem's subject—alive forever and allow them to defy even death.

"Sonnet 18" is devoted to praising a friend or lover, traditionally known as the "fair youth." The sonnet itself serves as a guarantee that this person's beauty will be sustained. Even death will be silenced because the lines of the poem will be read by future generations, when speaker/poet and lover are no more, keeping their fair image alive through the power of verse.

The opening line is almost a tease, reflecting the speaker's uncertainty as he attempts to compare his lover to a summer's day. The rhetorical question is posed for both speaker and reader, and even the metrical stance of this first line is open to conjecture. This image of the perfect English summer's day is then surpassed as the second line reveals that the lover is more lovely and more temperate. Lovely is still quite commonly used in England and carries the same meaning then as it does now (attractive, nice, and beautiful), while temperate, in Shakespeare's time, meant gentle-natured, restrained, and moderate and composed.

The second line refers directly to the lover with the use of the second-person pronoun Thou, which is now archaic. As the sonnet progresses, lines three through eight concentrate on the ups and downs of the weather. Summertime in England is a hit-and-miss affair weather-wise. Winds blow, rainclouds gather and before you know where you are, summer has come and gone in a week. The season seems all too short—that's as true today as it was in Shakespeare's time—and people tend to moan when it's too hot and grumble when it's overcast. The speaker is suggesting that for most people, summer will pass all too quickly, and they will grow old, as is natural, their beauty fading with the passing of the season. Lines nine through twelve, turn the argument for aging on its head. The speaker states with a renewed assurance that "thy eternal summer shall not fade", and that his lover shall stay fair and even cheat death and time by becoming eternal.

Lines 13 and 14 reinforce the idea that the speaker’s poem will guarantee that the lover remains young, the written word becoming their breath and vital energy and ensuring their life continues. Between repetition, assonance, alliteration and internal and end rhyme, readers of "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" are certainly treated to a range of devices that create texture, music, and interest.

Note the language of these lines: rough, shake, too short, sometimes, too hot, often, dimmed, declines, chance, changing, untrimmed. There are interesting combinations within each line that add to the texture and soundscape: Rough/buds, shake/May, hot/heaven, eye/shines, often/gold/complexion, fair from fair, sometimes/declines, chance/nature/changing, nature/course.

Life is not an easy passage through time for most (if not all) people. Random events can radically alter who we are, and we are all subject to time's effects. In the meantime, the vagaries of the English summer weather are called up again and again as the speaker attempts to put everything into perspective. Finally, the lover's beauty, metaphorically an eternal summer, will be preserved forever in the poet's immortal lines.

Note the use of the verb shall and the different tones it brings to different lines. In the first line, it refers to the uncertainty the speaker feels. In line nine, there is a sense of some kind of definite promise, while line eleven conveys the idea of a command for death to remain silent. The word beauty does not appear in this sonnet. Both summer and fair are used instead. Thou, thee and thy are used throughout and refer directly to the lover—the fair youth. The words and, nor and so long serve to repeat and reinforce the poem's ideas.

Shakespeare asks the addressee of the sonnet – who is probably the same young man, or ‘Fair Youth’, to whom the other early sonnets are also addressed – whether he should compare him to a summery day. He goes on to remark that the young man is lovelier, and more gentle and dependably constant. After all, in May (which, in Shakespeare’s time, was considered a bona fide part of summer) rough winds often shake the beloved flowers of the season (thus proving the Bard’s point that summer is less ‘temperate’ than the young man).

What’s more, summer is over all too quickly: its ‘lease’ – a legal term – soon runs out. We all know this to be true, when September rolls round, the nights start drawing in, and we get that sinking ‘back to school’ feeling.

In lines 5-8, Shakespeare continues his analysis of the ways in which the young man is better than a summer’s day: sometimes the sun (‘the eye of heaven’) shines too brightly (i.e. the weather is just too hot, unbearably so), and, conversely, sometimes the sun is ‘dimmed’ or hidden by clouds. And every lovely or beautiful thing (‘fair’ here in ‘every fair’ is used as a noun, i.e. ‘every fair thing’), even the summer, sometimes drops a little below its best, either randomly or through the march of nature (which changes and in time ages every living thing).

In lines 9-12, Shakespeare continues the ‘Youth vs. summer’ motif, arguing that the young man’s ‘eternal summer’, or prime, will not fade; nor will the Youth’s ‘eternal summer’ lose its hold on the beauty the young man owns (‘ow’st’). Nor will Death, the Grim Reaper, be able to boast that the young man walks in the shadow of death, not when the youth grows, not towards death (like a growing or lengthening shadow) but towards immortality, thanks to the ‘eternal lines’ of Shakespeare’s verse which will guarantee that he will live forever.

In his concluding couplet, Shakespeare states that as long as the human race continues to exist, and read poetry, Shakespeare’s poem (‘this’) survives, and continues to ‘give life’ to the young man through keeping his memory alive.

 Theme 1: The Nature of Beauty 

“Sonnet 18” has a couple of central questions, and one of the most important is, “What is beauty?” Understanding the nature of beauty is one of the major points of the poem, which we can see from the first two lines: 

The first line tells us that the speaker is comparing the Fair Youth to a summer’s day, which is a beautiful thing! But the speaker tells us that the Fair Youth is actually “More lovely and more temperate” than a summer’s day. 

But what does “temperate” mean here? At first glance, we could assume that the speaker is saying that the Fair Youth (the “thee” referenced in the lines above) isn’t as hot as a summer’s day. But, actually, “temperate” might be a compliment about the Youth’s personality: a temperate person is someone who is mild-mannered, calm, and reasonable. 

That’s right—the Youth isn’t just “lovely” on the outside. He’s also got a beautiful soul!

And that’s the ultimate definition of beauty that the speaker is trying to convey throughout “Sonnet 18.” Whereas nature can sometimes be severe and unpredictable, the Youth’s beauty is enduring and steady because he’s beautiful on the outside and on the inside. Whereas outward beauty diminishes over time, inner beauty endures. 

 Theme 2: The Inevitability of Decay

The inevitability of decay is a second theme that characterizes “Sonnet 18.” Decay is presented as a powerful threat to beauty, setting up a contrast that the speaker contemplates throughout the sonnet.

You could think of the theme of decay as being similar to growing old and/or dying in this sonnet. We know, it seems kind of gross to paint aging and death in terms of “decay.” But because things in the natural world decay—like a dead tree or an abandoned house, for example—it serves as a good counterpoint for the enduring beauty of the Fair Youth. 

So where do we see decay cropping up in this sonnet? Look no further than lines three through eight:

See? In the lines above, things that were once beautiful are degraded by nature and the passing of time. In this case, that’s shown through the changing of the seasons. Beautiful flower buds that appeared in spring are stripped away by rough winds as the seasons change to summer. The hot days of summer dim and fade into fall, and then the earth grows darker as winter nears. 

While each season is “fair” or beautiful at some point, it also inevitably declines as time goes by. By using nature to make this point, the speaker is pointing out that decay is an inevitable part of life--it’s the “natural” course of things! 

Based on the first half of the sonnet, it seems like the speaker’s saying that decay is unavoidable. But when we get to the turn, or volta, in line nine of the sonnet, it’s revealed that the speaker believes one thing doesn’t decay: the beauty of the Fair Youth. 

Instead of fading into fall like real summer, the speaker says that the beauty the Fair Youth possesses will outlast the tests of time. Keep in mind that the speaker isn’t saying that the Fair Youth won’t physically grow old one day. But rather than decaying under the shadow of old age and death, the Fair Youth will live out his days with the same intrinsic beauty and vigor that comes from a strong inner spirit.  

 Theme 3: The Passage of Time

The final theme we’ll look at in “Sonnet 18” is the passage of time. This theme appears as the speaker makes references to the changing of seasons from spring, to summer, to fall. The passage of time is also explicitly referenced in lines twelve through fourteen:

That wording in line twelve is a little confusing, so let’s break it down. It seems that the speaker is saying that the Fair Youth defies the loss of beauty by growing with time. Growing and evolving as time passes is one of the ways that humans stay relevant, engaged, and lively...even as our bodies grow older. 

That’s what the speaker sees in the Fair Youth. Being open to growth is a way to maintain one’s inner youthfulness. As long as life keeps going on and on, and as long as the Fair Youth keeps growing and evolving, these traits will give life to the Fair Youth.

Another way to read the lines above is that the Fair Youth’s beauty will live on through time in people’s memory. And how are people going to remember the Fair Youth? By reading “Sonnet 18,” of course! The speaker is emphasizing how the beautiful things we witness in real-time will eventually decay, but beauty immortalized through a poem will live on. This is a commentary on the value of literature: through writings, we can capture memories of beautiful things that won’t change with the passing of time. So even when the Fair Youth is gone, we can still appreciate his beauty because we’re reading a poem about him! 

Sources

• The Kingsway Shakespeare, 1937, George Harrap.
• An Introduction to Shakespeare's Sonnets, www.bl.uk.
• About the Sonnet, www.english.illinois.edu.

·         https://poetryarchive.org/poem/shall-i-compare-thee-to-a-summers-day-sonnet-18/

·         https://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/sonnets/section2/

Fear no more by William Shakespeare

Fear no more the heat o’ the sun,

Nor the furious winter’s rages;

Thou thy worldly task hast done,

Home art gone, and ta’en thy wages:

Golden lads and girls all must,

As chimney-sweepers, come to dust.

 

Fear no more the frown o’ the great;

Thou art past the tyrant’s stroke;

Care no more to clothe and eat;

To thee the reed is as the oak:

The scepter, learning, physic, must

All follow this, and come to dust.

 

Fear no more the lightning flash,

Nor the all-dreaded thunder stone;

Fear not slander, censure rash;

Thou hast finished joy and moan:

All lovers young, all lovers must

Consign to thee, and come to dust.

 

No exorciser harm thee!

Nor no witchcraft charm thee!

Ghost unlaid forbear thee!

Nothing ill come near thee!

Quiet consummation have;

And renownèd be thy grave!

This poem has been taken from Shakespeare's play Cymbeline. This is a death poem having universal appeal. In this poem the poet has expressed his feeling for the rest of the soul of the dead. It is written for the consolation of the dead. The poet wants to say that a dead person becomes free from all kinds of worldly anxieties. It is full of moral lessons.

A dead person cannot feel the heat of the sun. A living person has to face the scorching sun and bitter coldness of the winter season. But after death, he gets rid of them. After death a person goes to heaven, which is his permanent home. As a laborer works and goes home after taking his wages, so a dead person goes home with his success and failures. The poet further advises a dead person not to be disappointed from death because death is the fate of every person. It lays its icy hands over all whether he is a handsome fellow, a beautiful girl or a chimney sweeper. All must die one day.

A dead person is immune from the anger of his master. In his lifetime, he is in financial trouble. He has no sufficient money for buying necessary cloth and proper fund. Consequently, he has no proper cloth to cover his body and proper food to satisfy his hunger. But after death, he does not feel any necessity of these things. Death is very impartial. It does not distinguish between the poor and rich. Kings, learned men, physicians and doctors must die one day.

A dead man does not fear the lightening flash nor thunder-storm. He is free from public criticism. Joy and sorrow are the same for him. In his life time sometime he is happy and sometimes sad. But after death, he does not feel anything. At last the poet says that death should not be the cause of sorrow because all persons, whether they are young lover or old one, must die and meet the dust. It is lyrical and follows a systematic pattern, example 'the sun' 'done', 'rages', 'wages' 'must' 'dust' etc.

The poem ‘Fear no more heat o’ the sun’ by William Shakespeare is a poem about that death can come at any age, and all the troubles and worries that happening while living will not matter while we are dead. In this poem the persona reassures the responder about the notion of death numerous times. The imperative mood of the opening line, “Fear no more…” reassures the responder about the notion of death.  Shakespeare’s repetition of this line throughout the first three stanzas reinforces this idea, while the volta created by the shift to the exclamatory mood in the final stanza serves to drive this message home for the responder as it soothes the human anxiety about death. The juxtaposition of the two extremes of the “heat o’ the sun” and the “furious winter” reinforces the idea that we have no need to fear even the most harsh seasons.  Furthermore, Shakespeare personifies the winter in order to dramatise this contrast while the diction of the adjective “furious” emphasises this drama.The juxtaposition of the two extremes “Golden lads and girls” (“golden” symbolising wealth and favour) and “chimney-sweepers” (symbolising the poor street urchins) conveys the idea that death is inevitable, because these extremes represent the children of the richest and those of the poorest classes to  symbolise that death equally to all humanity regardless of social-class. The diction of “must” creates high modality to emphasise death’s inevitability, which is represented by the metaphor and biblical allusion “come to dust”. This allusion, together with the diction “must”, is repeated at the end of the first three stanzas to highlight the poem’s central thesis about the inevitability of death.

Secondly, within the second stanza focuses the human condition to convey that death will liberate us from these concerns.  Shakespeare states that we need not fear the metaphoric “frown of the great” and “tyrant’s stroke” to highlight that death will liberate humanity from oppressive rulers. Similarly, we are reminded that in death we need not have physiological and safety worries, “to clothe and eat”, as Shakespeare suggests these are irrelevant in death.  Shakespeare lists the various professions through the synecdoches, “the scepter, learning, physic”, referring to everyone from the king, to the teacher to the doctor, to convey that all humankind, regardless of profession, will be a victim of death. In the poem’s final stanza, the exclamatory lines focus on the evils that trouble humanity, symbolised by “witchcraft”, “Ghost” and “ill”, building the tension that is then diffused in the softer diction of the final couplet. As the poem ends, “Quiet consummation have / And renowned be thy grave!”, this leaves the responder with the idea that death is a time for peace. In conclusion, the poem juxtaposes the complex needs and fears of life, shelter, safety, food and love with the simplicity and finality of death as we all “must”, simply, “come to dust”.  

Sources: https://sites.google.com/site/poemanalysis101/fear-no-more-the-heat-o-the-sun