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Fatima Arriola

Professor Batty

English 102

24 September 2017

The Love That Never Faded Away:

Analysis of "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day" by William Shakespeare

Most people say that love is not a "real thing" or that it doesn't exist. There's no definite answer

to such a question, but throughout the years, we have established romanticism all over the world.

We spread love everywhere with family, friends, co-workers, bosses, and acquaintances. This

might sound weird, but sometimes we share compassion with people who hate us. Love is a word

that could interpret as many things. Imagine a poem written with insane language that most

people won't even have a clue on what they're reading. Long ago, a new man was born without

knowing that he was going to have such a powerful gift of writing. His name was William

Shakespeare. The man whose stories we read this day and who we admire for writing such

masterpieces including romantic, tragedy, comedy and histories plays. Shakespeare wrote a

sonnet once that became and still is famous. "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" is the

sonnet that people have engaged with throughout the decades. This sonnet was written for the

entire population, but "not everyone is willing to accept the role of Sonnet 18 as the last English

love poem. Most people don't think this sonnet has no outgoing romanticism because there's no

proof that this poem is directly for a girl or that it was written specifically for a person. I back up

this argument by saying that Shakespeare intentionally didn't write this sonnet correctly for

someone but overall this sonnet expresses love and beauty by explaining how
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a person can be beautiful on the inside, and the outside is knowing that their beauty will never

fade away.

Shakespeare's sonnet eighteen is of the most famous poems that contain metaphors. He

uses figurative language to dramatize the poem and uses loveliness of the words and

metaphorical language to make the poem more fascinating to the reader. The metaphors

Shakespeare uses throughout the poem describe "the traditional idea that we all live in the

seasons of man; spring has the most promise, but summer being the strongest." I believe that he

creates this poem as a big metaphor, so the reader finds the work higher end and not easy to

understand, which is why Shakespeare's language is complicated. When Shakespeare says, "But

thy eternal summer shall not fade," he uses a metaphor that says she will always be young to

him, and that her glow and strength is everlasting." According to a source from "Literary

Resources" a young poet named Thomas Alan Broughton said that William Shakespeare poem is

directly for a woman, so for that particular reason, Thomas decided to rewrite Shakespeare's

sonnet in an easier way of understanding it. Thomas Alan Broughton Shakespeare pays close

attention to the rhyme pattern in every line, carefully choosing the words that fit the pattern.

When he mentions the word "summer," I think of a bright, happy yellow color which makes me

imagine I'm in a happy place when I read the line of the poem. The colors that are existing give

the poem a wisdom of life but also dimness which makes it look as if the months and time is

being stopped and doesn't know which side to take. This is practically seen in the poem with the

speaker not knowing what to do with the time that is sliding away. This is reasonably seen in the

poem with the speaker not knowing what to do with the time that is slipping away. In this case,
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Shakespeare changes the season through his writing using figurative languages that express

reality.

This sonnet that William Shakespeare wrote in iambic pentameter because it has a regular

pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of the poetry. There are fourteen lines in a

Shakespearean sonnet. "The first twelve lines are divided into three quatrains with four lines

each. In the three verses, the poet establishes a theme or problem and then resolves it in the final

two lines, called the couplet. There are two quatrains (groups of four lines), followed by a third

quatrain in which the tone of the poem shifts a bit which is in turn followed by a rhyming couplet

(two lines) that wraps the poem up". Shakespeare has a bizarre way of putting things, so that turn

our rhyming. The form of this sonnet is also notable for being a perfect model of the

Shakespearean sonnet form. "This poem also has the uniquely English turn of a final rhyming

verse that somewhat sums up and partially renews what came before it. In this case, the closing

lines have the feel of a cute little poem of their own, making it clear that the poet's skills were the

theme of this poem all along. Surely, this poem has some of the qualities of a love poem, but this

poem isn't just a poet's expression of love for someone else". These stylish elements make us

understand the language more clearly because when you first read the poem, it's very confusing

to know without knowing if you're interpreting the same way everyone is. The metaphors are

quite tricky, but the point of having them is to inform the reader how the poet is trying to

translate his word into our imagination. The poet is trying to make us feel what he felt when he

wrote the poem which is the most important thing that any poet wants to have with the reader.

Now that I have discussed the formalist lens of the poem, I'm moving on to the historical context

of the poem and Bibliographic of the author.


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William Shakespeare was born in 1564 in the town of Stratford-upon-Avon in

Warwickshire, England. The son of a successful conventional glove-maker who Shakespeare

attended grammar school, but his formal education proceeded no further. In 1582, he got married

and had three children with Anne Hathaway. Around 1590 he left his family behind and traveled

to London to work as an actor and playwright. That's when his name was getting familiar with

the town, and Shakespeare eventually became the most popular playwright in England and part

owner of the Globe Theater. According to an Article from "ThoughCo." written by Lee

Jamieson stated that it wasn't until 1609 that the sonnets first appeared in print in an

unauthorized edition by Thomas Thorpe. "Most critics agree that Shakespeare's sonnets were

published without his consent because the 1609 text seems to be based on an incomplete or draft

copy of the poems. The text is riddled with errors, and some believe that certain sonnets are

unfinished". In sonnet 18 Shakespeare proves his humanist nature that is plain of the Renaissance

period. Much of the language signifies the Renaissance view of the Renaissance period. Much of

the language means the Renaissance view of human power over nature. It seems that

Shakespeare is directing out how humankind is the center of the living formation with every

other thing there to serve the needs of humanity. He then describes all of the beauty of nature

that falls short of the vibrant nature of humankind. This love of admiration is Shakespearean

language to the essential. Placing values on the nonliving and then escalating the levels to the

greatness and intelligence of humanity. I think Shakespeare got inspired mostly by the people. I

can tell the William Shakespeare was a very extraordinary passionate person who was a seeker

for love. All of this information about Shakespeare makes me realize and understand why he

wrote such poems with such immensely powerful words that mean so much to today world. I
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think his primary goal was to bring joy and romanticism alive since love wasn't a huge in the

renaissance period.

In summary, we have a knowledge of how Shakespeare sonnet eighteen, became so well

known. His time was extremely different from ours today, despite the fact we don't believe in

true love anymore. Love has died even though people make it seem like they care when they

don't. The most amazing thing is that we still connect to Literature poems, for example,

Shakespeare sonnet "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day," which is well known by most

people. This sonnet brings beauty to our world by the way the words are being expressed and

used. It amazing how something so old can relate to our generation these days and how it can

make us interpret things. Going back to the sonnet "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day," I

still believe that this poem can bring a lot of happiness to everyone because it has such an

incredible message behind of how everyone has beauty inside of them and how it will never fade

away.
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Works Cited

Broughton, Thomas Alan. "Shall I Compare Thee?" The Southern Review, vol. 37, no. 3, 2001,

p.Literature

ResourceCenter,go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=GLS&sw=w&u=lavc_main&v=2.1&id=GALE%7

CLTF0000082271WK&it=r&asid=fd56c53a42ee636730dda383cd9bd4a8. Accessed 24 Sept.

2017.

Jamieson, Lee. "What to Know About Shakespeare's Sonnets." ThoughtCo, 28 May 2017,

www.thoughtco.com/the-shakespearian-sonnet-2985265.

Mabillard, Amanda. Analysis of Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 - Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day,

www.shakespeare-online.com/sonnets/18detail.html.

Gonzalez, Maxine. Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day? Prezi.com, 27 Feb. 2013,

prezi.com/r5laivslb3wp/shall-i-compare-thee-to-a-summers-day/.

Shmoop Editorial Team. Sonnet 18 Form and Meter. Shmoop, Shmoop University, 11 Nov. 2008,

www.shmoop.com/sonnet-18/rhyme-form-meter.html.

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