Renaissance lesson 5: Shakespeare + sonnets

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 5

What do you know about
William Shakespeare?

Identify the three kinds of plays Shakespeare wrote.

Which version of sonnet 18 do you prefer?

Lorna(the first )

Akala (the second)

Original language

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 dimmed;

And every fair from fair sometime declines,

By chance or nature’s changing course untrimmed.

But thy eternal summer shall not fade,

Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,

Nor shall Death brag thou wand’rest 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.

Translation in modern English

Should I compare you to a summer's day?

You are lovelier and more mild.

Even in May rough winds shake the delicate flower buds,

And the duration of summer is always too short.

Sometimes the Sun, the eye of heaven, is too hot,

And his golden face is often dimmed;

And beauty falls away from beautiful people,

Stripped by Chance or Nature's changing course.

But your eternal summer will not fade,

Nor will you lose possession of the beauty you own,

Nor will Death be able to boast that you wander in his shade,

When you live in eternal lines, set apart from time.

As long as men breathe or have eyes to see,

As long as this sonnet lives, it will give life to you.

www.poetryfoundation.org

Sonnet 18

- Compares the author's
   lover to a summer's day 

- While summer is lovely...

- ... his lover is more beautiful
   and kind

- A summer's day will end,
   his love will not

Shakespeare begins the poem with a rhetorical question. How does het answer his own question?

. No, because that would be to compare you to something whose beauty is flawed.

2. Why might a man compare his lover to a summer's day?

3. What flaws in summer's beauty are identified in lines 3-6

4. What is the 'eye of heaven' (line 5) a metaphor for?
Give a one-word answer!

5. What does 'his' (line 6) refer back to?
Give a one-word answer!

6. What is meant by 'nature's changing course'?

1. The natural cycle of life (which involves aging)
2. you can't precisely predict the weather.
3. Environmental issues

8. Where is Shakespeare's break of thought? (the volta)

1. between lines 5 and 6
2. between lines 6 and 7
3. between lines 8 and 9
4. Between lines 12 and 13

question 8 explained:

Between lines 8 and 9.

The first eight lines are mainly about the season summer; the final six lines are about the poet making his lover’s summer (i.e. beauty) immortal.

9. What contrast does the poet make in lines 7 and 10?

10. What example of personification can be found in the poem?

1. Sun
2. Death
3. Summer's day
4. Nature

question 10 explained:

 Line 11: ‘Death’ is turned into a name by giving it a capital letter, and Death is said to brag, which is something only a person can do.

11. What does 'this' (line 14) refer to?
Give a 2-word answer.

12. What message is contained in the concluding couplet?

13. The word 'do' in line 3 is not stricly necessary in a grammatical sense. Why does he choose to include it?