Shall I compare thee to a summer's day, Shakespeare Analysis - Essay Example

Shakespeare uses figurative language as seen in the rhetorical question, "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day”. A summer's day is an image that creates an impression of warmth and sunshine. Furthermore, Shakespeare says "And summer's lease hath all too short a date" a metaphor affirming the brief length of summer unlike his beloved's beauty that will last for eternity. When Shakespeare says that “thy eternal summer shall not fade”, he uses another metaphor that indicates that she will always remain young to him.

In other words, it is indicated that her glow and vitality are everlasting. In addition, Shakespeare says “he” will never claim her, thus personifying death. In the fifth line of the poem, one can see Shakespeare’s use of “the eye of heaven” for ‘sun”, a perfect use of metaphor. Similarly, in the sixth line, one can see the sun becoming a human face having ‘gold complexion’. Moreover, he says she will always live, but in his heart, thus using metaphor. Another point is his claim that his poetry will give her “life”.

Through this, Shakespeare compares thoughts to physical life. Second, Shakespeare uses the basic structure ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. Like all other Shakespearean sonnets, this too consists of fourteen lines that are divided into three four-line quatrains and a concluding, two line closed couplet. One can observe the last words of the first and the third lines rhyme. Similarly the last words of the third and fourth lines rhyme in the case of the quatrains. (ABAB CDCD EFEF) For example, the last words of the first four lines are ‘day, temperate, May, date’.

Similarly, the last words in the second quatrain are ‘shines, dimm’d, declines, untrimm’d. Also, the lines of the last quatrain end ‘fade, owest, shade, and growest’. Now, for the final rhyming couplet, the rhyme scheme is GG. The words that end these lines in this poem are ‘see, thee’. Thirdly, Shakespeare uses meter to set the tone that is maintained in limbic pentameter as he sings of his beloved’s immortality. An iambic foot has an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable.

Pentameter means there are five feet per line. For instance, the first line of the poem can be divided into five feet as follows: “Shall (u) I (s)/ com (u) pare (s)/ thee (u) to (s)/ a (u) sum s)/ mer’s (u) day (s)/”. In all these feet, there is an unstressed syllable (u) followed by a stressed syllable (s). It is clear that the whole poem continues without any deviation from this meter. In addition, one can observe that none of the lines in the poem flow over into the following line. For example, there is “Rough winds/ do shake/ the darling buds/ of May/”, and “Sometime/too hot/the eye/of hea/ven shines/”.

In fact, most English sonnets are divided into lines of roughly ten syllables, and this poem strictly follows that pattern. Furthermore, in the sonnet, one can observe the effective use of repetition of words to give it a particular nature and feeling. For example, the word ‘summer’ appears many times, and it remains the basic theme. Thus, Shakespeare links the beauty of his beloved with the sunshine and warmth of a summer day. In addition, there is the use of ‘fair’ and ‘eternal’ to create a specific impression and feeling.

Thus, the sonnet succeeds in creating a number of beautiful imageries in the minds of the readers even without their knowing it. Thus, in total, though the Sonnet looks like a traditional love poem, a close observation shows it possesses all the features of