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Shall I compare thee to a Summer's Day
By William Shakespeare
Analysis by Dr. said Aboudaif, ph.D
The Poet
He is William Shakespeare who is the most famous 16th century
dramatist and poet. He wrote many plays at the time of Queen
Elizabeth. He wrote some plays like Macbeth, Othello and other
plays. He wrote some poems most of them are sonnets.
The Theme of the poem:
This poem is about love. The poet is expressing his love to the women he
loves. He is describing her and he is telling her that he will write a poem
to make her eternal and he will make every one reads his poem
remembers her.
The paraphrase:
The poet is talking to someone he loves. He says can I compare you to a
nice day of the summer. Then he says no I can't because you are lovelier
and more beautiful than this nice day of the summer. He is describing the
weather in the summer saying when the nice wind of the summer shake
the followers of the spring this makes a great pleasure, but summer stays
for a short period. Then hot weather comes back again. Then every thing
changes the followers, the weather and the pleasure. Then he says that is
natural because nothing stays for ever, and every beautiful thing changes
to some thing which is not beautiful. The poet says that your beauty is
different. It is eternal and it will not change. He confirms that even death
will not be able to take you to the unknown. He is that he will make her
eternal through poetry. His poem will make her live for ever.
The commentary:
This poem is a sonnet. It consists of 14 lines. The form of this poem is
called a Shakespearean sonnet which forms 14 lines of a rhyme a b a b c
d c d e f e f g g . The poem is full of metaphors and similes.
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day-------- he compares he to a nice
day of the summer.
Line 3 he compares the wind to a man who is shaking the woman he
loves.
Line 4 summer's lease -------he compares the summer to a tenant who has
a lease.
Line 5 to hot the eye of heaven ---------he compares the sun to a man who
got eyes.
The last tow lines are very important because he says that As long as
people will live and have eyes to read then his poetry will live and this
will give more life to you. It is a big metaphor where he compares his
poetry to a thing which will give her eternity and beauty all the time.
The Music in this poem is very clear. He used a lot of alteration. In the
poem you can see this repletion of the consonants which makes it very
musical. The Rhythm is clear in the poem because he used the Iambic
Pentameter in the whole poem.
The use of old English in the poem is clear where we see that
Shakespeare is using very old English words Like:
Thee means You
Thou means you
More lovelist than = you are lovelier than