SHALL I COMPARE THEE TO A SUMMER’S DAY BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Introduction
The poem is a sonnet that proclaims the beauty of a person by comparing the person to a summer’s day and then describing how the person is better than the summer day. The metaphoric analogy gave life and style to the poem, making it interesting to the reader.
The Poem
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.
Analysis of the poem (using the realms)
Meaning of the words used:
- Summer: One of the four seasons, traditionally the second, marked by the longest and typically hottest days of the year.
- Bud: A newly formed leaf or flower that has not yet unfolded.
- Temperate: Moderate and not excessive or extravagant
- Lease: To pick or gather up
- Hath: Have or had
- Dimmed: Not bright or colourful
- Decline: To move downward, to reduce or refuse
- Course: Any ordered process or sequence of action; a direction
- Untrimmed: To reduce, slightly. To cut, especially, to remove excess
- Ow’st: own
- Brag: To boast to talk with excessive pride about what one has, can do, or has done
- Wand: A stick or staff or a magic wand (stick).
First Quatrain
The poem opened in the first quatrain with a rhetorical question in which the poetic persona is considering if he should compare the object of his admiration to the ‘summer’s day’. Such comparison he wouldn’t do as he gave his reasons in the second line
“Thou art more lovely and temperate”
This means that the object of his admiration is caring, beautiful and not harsh, and in all she does, moderation is applied (temperate). The analogy describes summer as being harsh and extreme as a weather. This is expressed in line 3 and 4.
“Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date”
The above excerpt affirms that the life span of the buds is being cut short by the strong rough winds of summer, and that what is gathered in summer do not last.
Second Quatrain
The poetic persona goes on in this quatrain to emphasis the cruelty of summer. The sun, which is dominant in summer, is compared to the human eyes, and in the poem, considered to be very hot. Although, most times it will dim, but everything that was fair reduces (decline) and becomes dark. In the last line of the quatrain, the poetic persona affirmed that this shinning of the sun in summer, maybe by chance or naturally, is not controlled; it is excess (untrimmed).
“Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from declines.”
Third Quatrain
The poetic persona is telling us that the sun in summer, though is very hot, does not shine often, but also reduces fairness of things. Or you can say that he means that the shinning of the sun declines from time to time but the beauty of his lover does not blink in its glow.
“But thy eternal summer shall not fade”
He emphasizes that the beauty (summer) of his lady shall not fade, decline or reduce. In this quatrain, the poetic persona boasts that not even the pride of death can cover the fairness of his object of admiration under its shade to make it shine less. He says she will forever live and glow.
The couplet
In these lines, the poetic persona passionately opines that as long as men live and see this (this poem), the poem lives on, and you will remain alive
“So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see.
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.”
The poetic persona has poetically illustrated that the sun and in summer is unsteady and excessively harsh, but his object of admiration is eternal and mild. Even death cannot stop these attributes of his lover. That as far as humanity continues to exist and this poem is been read, the person being eulogized in the poem lives as well.
Therefore, what gives his object of admiration eternity is the existence of the poem. This is because whenever one reads this poem, the person will come to know about his lover. This will continue from generation to generation, and this keeps his lover alive. So, as you are reading this, the object of discussion in this poem continues to live.
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Litionary 