DIRECTIONS: Summer is a warm, delightful time of year often associated

with rest and recreation. Shakespeare uses figurative language to compare

his love to a summers day in Sonnet 18. Use the COMMENT button to
interpret his poem line-by-line and annotate the poem with at least 5
comments. Right-click on a word and click Define __ to read a definition to
help you. Then, answer the questions that follow on page 2.

Shall I compare thee to a summers day?

(Sonnet 18)
William Shakespeare, 1564 - 1616

Shall I compare thee to a summers day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate.

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

And summers 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 natures changing course, untrimmed;

But thy eternal summer shall not fade,

10

Nor lose possession of that fair thou owst,

11

Nor shall death brag thou wandrest in his shade,

12

When in eternal lines to Time thou growst.

13

So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,

14

So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Answer these questions when done with your interpretative

comments:
How does Shakespeare
make the woman he loves
sound more appealing?

He compares it to summer, which shows how their love could

come and go, but it is a time we all cherish.

What does the metaphor

mean in line 9?

I think it means that her beauty will never fade. He's saying that

Shakespeare portrays the

woman he loves as
ATTRACTIVE. Provide ONE
example from the poem
that gives evidence to
support this idea. Cite
specific evidence and
explain.

Thou art more lovely and more temperate. Here he

Which statement explains

how Shakespeare uses
figurative language in lines
5 & 6? Highlight one
answer.

a. Summer is always the best time of year.

b. The sun is personified to show that summer can have really
hot
days and also sometimes cloudy days.
c. The sun is meant to seem like it is making sounds and
annoying
people.
d. He is comparing his love to a cloudy day.

Shakespeare uses
personification to portray
the SEASONS as
threatening. Provide ONE
example from the poem
that gives evidence to
support this idea. Cite
specific evidence and
explain.

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,

Which theme does summer

represent in the poem?
Highlight one answer.

a.
b.
c.
d.

their love will never go away, and she might age her beauty, but he sees her as
beautiful for eternal life.

says that she is lovely, could be in a internal

meaning, or a physical meaning.

6
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
This shows how he says that it can be either too hot
or too cold, as in their relationship, there can be ups
and downs.

Its better to be beautiful than smart.

Sometimes change is hard to see.
Beauty can last forever in a poem.
Pain lessens as time goes on.

How does the repetition of

words and concepts in the
last two lines contribute to
the meaning of the poem?
Do you notice any other
repetition? Why do you
think he chose to repeat
those words?

It shows that he says how their love will last forever, and her
beauty, as long as there are people, and they have eyes to
read this poem. He repeats over and over in the poem,
although not in the same words that she is attractive and her
beauty is mentioned a lot.

Shakespeare writes his sonnets with a specific rhyme scheme, called iambic
pentameter: