Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 A TP-CASTT Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?  A Thou art more lovely and more temperate: B Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, A And summer's lease hath all too short a date:  B Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, C And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;  D And every fair from fair sometime declines, C By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd; D

Rhyme scheme But thy eternal summer shall not fade E Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st; F Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade, E When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:  F So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, G So long lives this and this gives life to thee. G

A paraphrase: OOOOH Baby I think I shall compare you to a summer day But, you know, you're prettier and even better, even calm Because sometimes it gets windy and the buds on the trees get shaken off And sometimes summer doesn't last very long Sometimes it's too hot And everything gorgeous loses its looks By getting hit by a truck Or just because everyone and everything gets old and ugly and shabby BUT (and here's the turn) you're going to keep your looks for ever 

Paraphrase, cont. Your beauty will last for ever I'm going to make sure that you never lose your good looks And that nasty old Death can never brag about owning you Because I shall write this poem about you As long as men can breathe (are you breathing?)  As long as men can see (are you looking at this poem?) Then this poem lives, and it gives life and memory to your beauty.

C:Connotation LINES 1-2: “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate” Lovely: makes us assume he’s addressing this to a woman. Temperate: actually has a double meaning. To us, temperate means, “an area with mild temperatures.” However, in Shakespeare’s time, “temperate” also meant having a balance of “humors.” People in Shakespeare’s time believed that your behavior indicated whether or not your “fluids” were balanced. (Fluids = blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm. Yummy, eh?) Good behavior = balanced fluids.

ConnotatioN Thee: Could be a romantic interest – or perhaps the audience? LINES 3-4: “Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer’s lease hath all too short a date” Rough winds: Summer is violent/passionate – it doesn’t always value delicate beauty (darling buds). Lease: Contractual agreement for a short period of time. Summer’s “lease” is its seasonal turn – it’s fated to end. “Too short a date”: Summer’s over quickly – but then again, it comes back every year.

CONNOTATION LINES 5-6: “Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;” Eye of heaven: The sun (personification) Complexion: The “skin” of the sun (personification). Could be an indication of fading health. Dimm’d: The sun sometimes goes behind clouds.

CONNOTATION LINES 7-8: “And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance, or nature’s changing course untrimm’d” Fair: Beautiful, temperate Untrimm’d: Could mean losing “decorations,” as in an untrimmed Christmas tree (fading beauty that comes with age). “Untrimmed” also is a term from sailing – you “trim” (or adjust) the sails to take advantage of the wind. (Could reference the predictable, natural changes of age.)

CONNOTATION: LINES 9-10: “But thy eternal summer shall not fade, Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,” Eternal summer: happy years of a relationship Ow’st: Could mean “ownest” or “owest” – both work nicely. Either the beloved won’t lose the beauty he/she possesses (owns), or won’t have to return the beauty he/she borrowed from nature and now owes back (this reflects back on summer’s “lease).

connotation LINES 11-12: “Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st;” “…death brag…wandr’st in his shade”: refers to the Biblical verse Psalm 23:4 (the valley of the shadow of death) “eternal lines to time”: Poetry’s immortality (we’re still reading this 400 years later, right?) – Shakespeare seems to be breaking the “fourth wall” here – he’s recognizing that people are reading this! grow’st: the poem nutures the love, so it grows.

connotation LINES 13-14: “So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.” This: The poem, which hopefully will be eternal. Thee: The beloved? Or perhaps…the audience? If you reread the poem with the latter in mind, the poem has a different meaning….

Attitude: The attitude is a bit romantic – and perhaps self-serving. The last two lines could possibly indicate conceit….

Shift: Two shifts are prevalent: Lines 9-10 (“But thy eternal summer shall not fade, Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st, Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st;” The word “but” indicates a shift, and he also breaks the fourth wall and refers to the writing of poetry. Final couplet: The mysterious nature of the word “thee” makes us see the possibility of an alternate message….

theme Two possible themes reside here: Capturing a love in literature can make it immortal. (keeping love “alive” through poetry = immortality) As long as humans capture our lives in literature, humankind will continue to thrive. (This makes the speaker seem more interested in himself and his abilities as a poet than the qualities of his addressee.)