Analysis of Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 - Eternal Beauty Explored

1. S O N N E T S Shakespeare 101

2. 14 lines (We’ll practice with Sonnet 18) 1 Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? 
2 Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
3 Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
4 And summer's lease hath all too short a date: 5 Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
6 And often is his gold complexion dimm'd; 
7 And every fair from fair sometime declines,
8 By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;
9 But thy eternal summer shall not fade
10 Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
11 Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
12 When in eternal lines to time thou growest: 
13 So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
14 So long lives this and this gives life to thee. What a sonnet looks like

3. What a sonnet sounds like • Iambic penta(tum)meter Shall I / com PARE/ thee TO / a SUM / mer’s DAY? Thou ART / more LOVE / ly AND / more TEM / per ATE

4. What a sonnet sounds like… Shall I compare thee to a summer'sday? aThou art more lovely and more temperate: bRough winds do shake the darling buds of May, aAnd summer's lease hath all too short adate: b
Sometime too hot the eye of heavenshines, cAnd often is his gold complexion dimm'd; d
And every fair from fair sometimedeclines, cBy chance or nature's changing courseuntrimm'd; dBut thy eternal summer shall not fade eNor lose possession of that fair thou owest; fNor shall Death brag thou wander'st in hisshade, eWhen in eternal lines to time thougrowest: f
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, gSo long lives this and this gives life to thee. g abab cdcd efef gg

5. How a sonnet is organized • Three quatrains that establish a theme or a problem. Speaker compares lover to summer Speaker extends claim that he/she is lovelier than summer Speaker explains how his lover’s beauty will never fade (like summer’s) because…

6. How a sonnet is organized • A rhyming couplet resolves the poem and ends the conflict Speaker immortalizes lover in his poem

7. How to analyze a Shakespearian sonnet • Pay attention to literary devices (what’s on your chart) • Paraphrase like you’ve never paraphrased before. • So, say it your own words. Go line by line and unpack the language so you get it. Then, you’ll be able to say what it means.