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?

Shakespeare makes the women he loves sound more

appealing by personifying with her characteristics, and
comparing her to amazing summer and the beauties of nature.

What does the metaphor

mean in line 9?

The metaphor in line 9 means that his loves beauty will live
forever. The fact that it says eternal summer compares his
forever love for this women.

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.

The line, Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines (5),
shows how attractive the women he likes is because he of the
words he used which are hot, eye, and shines. Those words
show that she is beautiful when someone looks at her and that
her beauty shines.

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.

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May (3). That lines
shows that the spring time is threatening because it blows
away the darling buds that are frowning.

Which theme does summer

represent in the poem?
Highlight one answer.

a.
b.
c.
d.

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?

The repetition of the words in the last two lines means that her
beauty is eternal and that it will always live with the poem. I
do see other repetitions in words. For example, the words
AND and SO LONG. I think he chose those words to show
that her beauty is eternal and will last forever.

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