Introduction:
Shakespeare’s sonnet is a love poem with a verse of 14 lines. It is usually in praise of the loved one. The poem is divided into sections of 4 lines called quatrains and 2 lines at the end called a couplet.
Quatrain 1:
~ praising highly his beloved
~ he compares the beloved to a summer’s day
~ even the summer’s day is considered less lovely and less constant as the beloved
Quatrain 2:
~ the sun is sometimes too hot in summer or occasionally clouded over.
~ every beautiful thing becomes less beautiful through accident or through accident or through the passing of time.
Quatrain 3:
~ he claims that the beloved’s beauty will not fade or die, because of the poem
Couplet:
~ the poem will be read as long as man lives and therefore the beloved will live on
~ preserving beauty through the generations
Vocabulary focus:
Temperate: even tempered
Summer’s lease: the fixed period of summer
Eye of heaven: sun
Fair: beauty
Changing course: the passing of time
Untrimm’d: deprived of trimmings
Ow’st: possesses
Thou wander’st in his shade: when you die
Tone /mood:
1) romantic (personally addressing his beloved)
2) light and carefree (choosing summer’s day as a comparison)
3) happy (celebrating his love)
4) confident (his poem will be read and enjoyed through time)