![]() ![]() However, opinions are divided on this topic. As long as men can read and breathe, his poem shall live on, and his lover, too, will live on, because he is the subject of this poem. The final two lines seem to corroborate this view, as it moves away from the description of the lover to point out the longevity of his own poem. In fact, scholars have argued that, as a love poem, the vagueness of the beloved’s description leads them to believe that it is not a love poem written to a person, but a love poem about itself a love poem about love poetry, which shall live on with the excuse of being a love poem. It is almost ironic that we are not given a description of the lover in particular. Here, in this particular sonnet, the feeling of summer is evoked through references to the ‘ darling buds‘ of May, and through the description of the sun as golden-complexioned. ![]() William Shakespeare’s sonnets thrive on simplicity of imagery, at a polar opposite to his plays, whose imagery can sometimes be packed with meaning. In terms of imagery, there is not much that one can say about it. Thus, through the words, his beloved’s beauty will also live on. Though they might die and be lost to time, the poem will survive, will be spoken of, will live on when they do not. The immortality of love and beauty through poetry provides the speaker with his beloved’s eternal summer. So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, / So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. Instead, he attributes that quality to his beloved, whose beauty will never fade, even when ‘ death brag thou waander’stin his shade‘, as he will immortalize his lover’s beauty in his verse. Thus, to compare his lover to a summer’s day, the speaker considers their beloved to be tantamount to a rebirth, and even better than summer itself.Īs summer is occasionally short, too hot, and rough, summer is, in fact, not the height of beauty for this particular speaker. Summer has always been seen as the respite from the long, bitter winter, a growing period where the earth flourishes itself with flowers and with animals once more. The poem opens with the speaker putting forward a simple question: can he compare his lover to a summer’s day? Historically, the theme of summertime has always been used to evoke a certain amount of beauty, particularly in poetry. When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st, Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade, Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st, The beloved’s beauty can coexist with summer, and indeed be more pleasant, but it is not a replacement for it.Īnd summer’s lease hath all too short a date:īy chance, or nature’s changing course untrimmed: Although in Sonnet 130, Shakespeare is mocking the over-flowery language, in Sonnet 18, Shakespeare’s simplicity of imagery shows that that is not the case. This also riffs – as Sonnet 130 does – on the romantic poetry of the age, the attempt to compare a beloved to something greater than them. While summer is short and occasionally too hot, his beloved has a beauty that is everlasting, and that will never be uncomfortable to gaze upon. Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day? attempts to justify the speaker’s beloved’s beauty by comparing it to a summer’s day, and comes to the conclusion that his beloved is better after listing some of the summer’s negative qualities. So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st, Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade, Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st, Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,Īnd every fair from fair sometime declines,īy chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed: ![]() Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,Īnd summer's lease hath all too short a date: ![]() A total of 126 of the 154 sonnets are largely taken to be addressed to the Fair Youth, which some scholars have also taken as proof of William Shakespeare’s homosexuality. Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day? is one of the Fair Youth poems, addressed to a mysterious male figure that scholars have been unable to pin down. Based on the Petrarchan (or Italian) sonnet, Shakespeare’s sonnets differ from the norm by addressing not only a young woman – which was the norm in Italy – but also a young man, known throughout as the Fair Youth. Although William Shakespeare is best known as a playwright, he is also the poet behind 154 sonnets, which were collected for the first time in a collection in 1609. ![]()
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