Download Sonnet 18

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2 pts (2pts each- Partial Credit for answers possible)
Sonnet 18:
Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day?
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 dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this and this gives life to thee.
By: William Shakespeare
Write in COMPLETE sentences!! Write NEATLY and proof
1. The speaker opens the sonnet by wondering if he should compare his lover to a summer’s day.
How does he answer his own question? In line 2, what two general reasons does the speaker give
for rejecting his comparison?
2. In lines 3-8, the speaker continues to think about his comparison. What image does he use to show
that summer weather is unpredictable? What is the “eye of heaven,” and why isn’t it constant, or
trustworthy?
3. According to lines 7-8, what can happen to any kind of beauty?
4. In the third quatrain (lines 9-12), the speaker makes a daring statement to his lover. What does he
claim will never happen?