100%(4)4 out of 4 people found this document helpful
This preview shows page 1 - 3 out of 6 pages.
Running head: POEM EXPLICATION1Poem Explication Cassandra AndrewsColorado State University – Global Campus
POEM EXPLICATION 2Poem ExplicationWilliams Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 18” titled “Shall I compare thee to a summers day?”originally written in 1609 is a poem in the form of a sonnet comparing the beauty of a person, tothat of a summer’s day. The use of the word “fair” and “him” in the sonnet leads the reader to theconclusion that the subject of the poem is a man that Shakespeare is admiring. The poem iswritten in an iambic pentameter and consists of three quatrains, and a couplet at the ending. Thepoem has a rhyme scheme of ABAB, CDCD, EFEF, GG. Shakespeare uses different poeticelements and literary devices in the sonnet such as metaphors, rhyming, imagery, personification,and reinforces his theme of “love everlasting” throughout the sonnet. The poem is used asymbol, Shakespeare (1609/2019) uses a summer day to symbolize the beauty of youth. Themood and tone of the sonnet is passion. In the first quatrain, and first line of the sonnet “Shall I compare thee to a summers day?”(Shakespeare, 1609/2019) Shakespeare uses a metaphor, Shakespeare compares the subject of the poem to a summer’s day. Shakespeare then goes on further to state in line two and use another metaphor “Thou art more lovely and more temperate” (Shakespeare, 1609/2019) Here, Shakespeare declares that he prefers the man’s beauty even more than a summers day. Shakespeare states that the subject is more “temperate” meaning the man is evenly tempered.