Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 -- Shall I compare thee
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- čas přidán 7. 08. 2024
- Line-by-line tour of the poem -- words, theme, and meaning.
MLA citation: Balcarcel, Rebecca. "Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 -- Shall I compare thee." Online video clip. Sixminutescholar. CZcams, 27 Dec. 2012. Web. DayMonthYearYouWatchedTheVideo.
Sonnet 18, by William Shakespeare, is packed full of meaning. This one Sonnet is as a novel and it speaks volumes. You can paint pictures in your mind with Shakespeare’s words. The theme of the poem is beauty and the tone pure and heart felt. The first line in the poem is a question reading, “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” (Shakespeare, 1609) I feel as though this is a rhetorical question, which is not to be answered because the author himself will do the answering. The author indeed answers the question, but not with a simple yes or no. He answers with a comparison, “Thou art more lovely and temperate:” (Shakespeare, 1609) meaning, in my opinion, that the author is implying, no we should not compare you to a summer’s day because you are more beautiful and pleasant than a summer day. Then the author begins to tell why a summers day can lack being “lovely” or “temperate” by writing, “Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May” (Shakespeare, 1609) This line is referring to the word “temperate”. Rough winds are, just that, rough, they are by no means “temperate”, a synonym for the word calm. Another reason why the author wishes not to compare “thee” to a summer’s day is stated as follows: “And summer’s lease hath all too short a date:” (Shakespeare, 1609, p. 492). In my opinion, the author is implying that, the superficial beauty of summer will fade, but “thee” will not fade. Another reason the author will not compare “thee” to a summers day is because, “sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines.” (Shakespeare, 1609, p. 492). The “eye of heaven”, to me, is the sun. Basically the author feels that summer is not perfect. However, “thee” is perfect in every form. Then he goes on to write, “And often in his gold completion dimm’d;” (Shakespeare, 1609, p. 492). I think the word “his” in this line is referring to the sun again. If the word his was capitalized I may compare the capital “His” to the phrase, “eye of heaven” and assumes he was speaking of God. However, the word “he” is lower cased and the author talks about the, “gold complexion” which the sun has. The suns bright and shinning glow naturally bring happiness, but it goes dim at times, but the bright shining glow of “thee” never dims, rather “thee” is always distinctive. The next line reads, “And every fair from fair sometimes declines,” (Shakespeare, 1609, p. 492). I think this is referring to the statement that beauty fades or that beauty comes from within. He goes on to describe how the “declines” happen and that is “By chance, or natures changing course, untrimm’d;” (Shakespeare, 1609, p. 492). The author then writes, “But thy eternal summer shall not fade” (Shakespeare, 1609, p. 492) I believe this time the word “summer” is in place of the word “Thee”. Neither chance nor nature can diminish the beauty that “thee” possesses because it is an “eternal” of forever beauty. “Thee” owns that beauty as in the following line: “Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;” (Shakespeare, 1609, p. 492). The poem goes on to read “Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade.” (Shakespeare, 1609, p. 492) The word “his” is referring to death or the shadow of death. Death will not brag that you are dead because you are eternal and will not die. The body (outer beauty) will die, but the soul (the inner beauty) will not die. “When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:” (Shakespeare, 1609, p. 492). The author is simply stating that because of the lines he has written “Thee” will be forever known to others, “so long as men can breathe or eyes can see,” (Shakespeare, 1609, p. 492). With the ending line, “so long lives this and this gives life to thee” (Shakespeare, 1609, p. 492). I believe this means so long lives this poem and that will give life to you because by reading it you will know that you are beautiful from within and that will never fade. William Shakespeare is from a much earlier time period and in that time the word “Thou” was used as a pronoun to “refer to the person addressed: used mainly in familiar address or to a younger person or inferior to refer to family such as a young child or someone inferior.”(Dictionary, n.d). Perhaps the poem is about that of children being youthful and lovely in nature, referring to their kind unbiased hearts. Perhaps he was referring to a specific child or a relative or his own child, if he had children. Maybe the poem was about women, in that time women were inferior to men. I will take this one step further and say William Shakespeare could have been comparing sonnet 18 making the word “thee” refer to the poem itself. I believe he could have been saying a summer’s day cannot compare to my beautiful poems.
Lacy Webb wow thanks darling. Too me. Your point of view is unique and will not out of time too.
Thansk lacy this helpet me alot to understand the shakspeare's poem .
Shakespeare had a child who died right?
Thank you so much!! I could never analyse a poem without someone's help!
commenter was fabulous, bravo
Make effort on your mind
@@mokurikuaglavanen9158 Yeah i know you born therefore you reply me ..
What's your problem with me
I'm a student of English literature, I couldn't teach its analysis or summary to my sis, neverthless. But, now, I feel I can give lecture at its summary even to my seniors. I'm so grateful to you. Keep helping us!
A bundle of thanks!
The more you share your knowledge the more it increases.
Thank you for your lovely comment! You're welcome, and it's so true that giving fills a person rather than emptying them. :-)
Thank You! I have had difficulties with the nuances in poems. I am a hardcore "non-fiction" reader. Poetry is essentially speaking another language. Your videos are wonderful and helpful.
The last thing with the words from the board blew me away! Thank you so much!
I never comment on other videos but I feel that this is necessary. Thank you very much for posting this video! Your analysis was outstanding, and it got me excited to share it with my AP English Literature class! Thanks again!
-Josh
Super analysis, you explain a complicated sonnet in a plain and understandable way. As a high school English teacher I found this as a great resource for explicating and annotatind Sonnet 18. By the way, this is not the first discussion of yours that I have incorprated in to my practices.
Robert Dames I'm so glad! Great to meet a fellow teacher!
Wonderful. Thank you so much
Pretty clear and complete. One of the best interpretations of this poem I have found in the Internet.
Thank you, your explanation was great! 😃
Thanks! Shakespeare IS awesome. His good material makes it easy to make good videos!
SixMinuteScholar 05342183363
Thank you... you help me grasp the essence of poem, now I can decoded and my way.
This was absolutely brilliant and very informative!
Great analysis. I memorized this and and sonnet 130 when I was in high school. These two sonnets, plus Poe's The Raven, Carroll's Jaberwocky and "may I feel said he" by e.e. cummings never left me without some cool poem to read. Thanks for the nice analysis, especially the tablet part with the different stages of the sun-it serves to remind me just how brilliant Shakespeare was.
I love your perpectives, and calm character which gives me calmness
Thanks a lot, you’ve been really helpful in understanding these poems.
Gracias!!!! You really helped me with this! U are just amazing!
thank you very much ,wonderful video
Well done!!!! Thank you so much.
I started taking a literature class and I never expected in my life to start comprehended poems special one like this thanks so much for what you do
ho gooOoood i love it. thank you. you are so lovely.
Excellent explanation! Thank you very much)
I really like your video’s. They are very helpful. Thank you!
you saved my life!! thank you very much!!
Amazing! Thank you very much!🤩🙏
You make the poems more Interesting and I enjoy reading now!
u really ,made my day.....thanks
The last two lines are my favourite..❤️..thank you very much for such good explanation ..of the very sonnet
This is so awesome! You make the poem much more lively and fun to listen to. And, of course, easier to understand. Love the way you use so much different words to describe one thing, in that way I always understood what you were actually saying. Well done!!!
Love you videos, you clarify my life and help me to get good scores 😂. Thank you!
Great analysis, thank you!
Brilliant analysis! it helped me a lot for understanding Shakespeare 👏👏👏
Thank you for this!!!
Amazing how people can think of things I've never even imagined myself thinking of !
Your videos are mindblowing ! (y)
That was very useful. I can't thank you enough.
wonderful, i have read some of your analysis and i is so easy to understand. thank you so much you are great.
Thank you. You're welcome!
Thank you very much for making me to know about such work by great poets.I feel just like listening from a friend.Good work mam.
Thanks! I'm glad to know that you found it interesting and easy to understand!
Thank you for the simple explanation.
I think the fourth meaning of line is the first and the most important ie lines of writing which would last forever.
thank you very much that makes the poem sooo clear
You're very welcome! Glad to help. :-)
I might be 4 years late, bu this is incredibly informative! Thank you for this!
I don't think Shakespeare was gay or bisexual because he married Anne Hathaway and they had 3 children. But, as you said, that question remains open :) and thank you very much for the explanation! It was very well done and has helped me get a better understanding of the poem!
thank you so much!!
Thanks for ur help Rebecca....this video helped me do my homework...YEAH!!! :)
I'm glad!
Amazing analysis !! Thank you so much!! I will have my oral exam in English in a few days... The topic will be a Shakespearean sonnet... Your video has been really useful!
Greetings from Brazil :D
Thanks, this is a great recourse...
Hope the exam went well! Congrats on finishing a class.
Really interesting... madam... respect from sri lanka... &thank you so much... ❤️
This is amazing. Haha, I wish u would be my lit teacher next year
this was awesome dude... thank you
Shane Choi Thanks! You're so welcome!
Love it! Thanks
Thank you very much! :) I'm learning the sonnet by heart which is hard since i'm not a native English speaker. You helped me to understand the sonnets meaning and learn it more easily. Thanks a lot!
You're welcome! Learning by heart gives you a life-long treasure. Hope it goes well!
Excellent!
U r my teacher
Love you
Wonderful :-)) thank you !!!!
You're welcome! :-)
Good idea! Thanks. I have started rereading Sonnet 116 and looking at the scholarship on it. Up soon! Thanks for such a good suggestion.
helped me so much thank you
I'm glad! You're welcome!
Wonderful!! The Carter Family said something similar. "Love I'll tell you with a kiss, if Heaven gives back the youth we miss, Your face will be no fairer then, when silver threads are gold again." I'm old. I know old people. And they are just as beautiful. Age dose not trim true beauty!
richard corey I agree!
Omg, ur so cool, intelligent and cute. I like the video on Emerson. I like this channel. I drink a tea and watch ur vids on my tv.
I did enjoy that Trip Through the Poem.
Sonnet 18: Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
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 ow’st;
Nor shall death brag thou wander’st 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.
Awesome! I appreciate your leaving a comment. You made my day, too!
thank you so much! you helped me a lot with my homework.😂
Ya ben bu kadını yerim ya, böyle bir tatlılık yok. Keşke hocam olsa dedirtti.
thanks so much this helps with my english assignment
Well wow! Many thanks. Hope your class goes well!
very helpful thank you
Very helpful! Thank you :)
Thank you!
You're very welcome!
thank you so much :)
You're so welcome! :-)
Uploaded a Sonnet 116 video today! Thanks for the suggestion. That was fun; now I'll get back to grading my students' essays. :-)
I like to think that Shakespeare wrote this after the death of his son. He would be up late at night whilst everybody else was asleep, expressing his love and grief the best way he knew how, through words, to create this beautiful poem.
Oh, good! Thanks very much!
Great analysis, Rebecca. I really enjoyed it. Have you looked into any of the literature that this poem is a eulogy to Shakespeare's dead son? Reread it as a eulogy to a beloved child, and it's even more touching.
What a good point! Thanks.
I shall subscribe!
Woow, you'te amazing! This is my fav sonnet, but since my native language isn't english, it's a lil bit difficult to understand what it is really about. Thank you very much for making it crystal clear♥
Doris 05342183363
You're welcome! I'm so glad!
Oh, good! Glad to have you! Are there any stories, poems, plays, or essays that you'd like me to do a video on? I haven't read everything, of course, but I'll do what I can. :-)
Thanks for this lecture...... It helps me to understand this poem......
I'm glad! You're welcome!
will you provide more lecture...plz let me know.... I am greatly waiting ...
this was fab thank you very much :D its my first day in uni tomorrow so this quick notes session hopefully will make me look all organised and whatnot!
UnicornFolk Glad to help! Have a good class!
The profound thing about analysis is that it is within “the eye of the beholder”, meaning that literature belongs to the reader. There is no right or wrong answer rather theory alone is sufficient with the correct amount of theoretical evidence to back up one’s hypothesis;
You owe your beauty.. which is a different interpretation mentioned by you.. you owe your beauty to who? The world? You have to give your beauty up to what? Ravages of time?
Please clarify. I loved your explanation beyond imagination by the way!
Than you very much
I believe Shakespeare wrote this as a eulogy for his son.
Jonny Hibbs Music 😮😮😮😮
"Rough winds come along and shake the buds," says she. A later line mentions "course" and "untrimm'd" - sails are trimm'd, or adjusted. Could it not mean that as Nature goes along we are unadjusted/untrimm'd? In 1609 hair was not un-greyed and there were no facelifts or botox, beauty was not trimm'd, not adjusted. This interpretation connects the earlier winds and the "course" - winds, course, and untrimm'd fit together nicely, don't you think? Even the (eternal) lines fit in with this nautical theme - lines are the method for adjusting sails.
Thanks 👍🏼💯
well thanks alot for the presentation its awsome so could u please talk about the sound effects in this sonnet
🏃🏂
Thank you ma'am. Our classes are getting delayed but you helped me a lot...
Good! :-)
Great! You're welcome!
Cool! You made mine, too!
There I shared it with my googleplus ppl
thanks alot .
You're welcome!
Gee, thanks. Glad you are enjoying this nerd candy!
❤️👏
I don’t see how you know it was written to a man? Please explain. I know and have known (by heart) the poem for 40 years. It wouldn’t surprise me that gays were in the theater 400 years ago. I do love your commentary and watch them with my 13 year old son. He too knows the sonnet by heart. Best tom
How many poems by Shakespeare have you memorized?
I feel you left out the innuendo. 'The eye of heaven', 'Untrimm'd'. All of Shakespeare's poetry contains innuendo. Thank you for your video.
Cool! :-)
Good point! You're right; he's always suggestive, and sometimes downright bawdy!
Thanks for the video. I know you mentioned the three meanings of the word 'lines', but have you considered that 'lines' could be taken as the literal lines of his poem? It makes sense that Shakespeare is talking about the lines of poetry being a way to immortalize love and beauty. Especially because the final two lines of the sestet make reference to both the poem and his beloved living on.
League of Literature Yes, good point! Thank you for adding this insight!