Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day
William Shakespeare
S.A.Q (Marks – 01)
1. What is the theme of ‘Sonnet No. 18’?
Answer: The sonnet is the poet’s tribute to his young and beautiful friend who is the perfect embodiment of the platonic conception of archetypal beauty.
2. “Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day” – Who is referred to as ‘thee’ here?
Answer: Here ‘thee’ refers to a young man, beautiful, brilliant and accomplished, who is perhaps the Earl of Southampton.
3. Why does the poet propose to compare his friend to a summer’s day?
Answer: The poet first proposes to compare his friend’s beauty to that of a summer’s day because both are bright in appearance.
4. “Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day” – Why does the poet hesitate?
Answer: The poet hesitates because his friend’s beauty is steady and permanent while that of a summer’s day is uncertain and temporary.
5. “Thou art more lovely and more temperate’ –What does the poet mean to say here?
Answer: The poet’s friend is moderate, tempered in character as compared with summer days which can be excessively hot.
6. What do the ‘rough winds’ do?
Answer: Rough winds spoil the lovely blossoms of summer.
7. What does the expression ‘the darling buds of May’ suggest?
Answer: Here the image of often-spoiled spring blossom hints at early death or young love blighted.
8. What is meant by the phrase ‘Summer’s lease’?
Answer: The idea behind the phrase is that Summer, personified, has taken a temporary lease of Nature, and is staying here till the lease period is over.
9. “ …Summer’s lease hath all too short a date” –What does this line suggest?
Answer: Summer has too short a span of life in the cycle of seasons.
10. What is the ‘eye of heaven’?
Answer: The ‘eye of heaven’ refers to the sun.
11. What is meant by the expression ‘his gold complexion’?
Answer: The expression refers to the golden colored face of the sun.
12. “…. Often his gold complexion dimmed” –What does this line suggest?
Answer: The lines simply suggest, frequently a summer’s day may be cloudy and deprived of its radiance.
13. “And every fair from fair sometimes declines” –what is meant by the first ‘fair’ and the second ‘fair’?
Answer: The first ‘fair’ means a beautiful person and the second ‘fair’ means fairness and beauty.
14. “By chance, or nature’s changing course untrimmed” –What does this line suggest?
Answer: In this world, everything and everyone that is beautiful eventually becomes less so or ceases to be beautiful at all owing to accident, bad luck or natural decay inherent in all things.
15. What does the phrase ‘nature’s changing course’ suggest?
Answer: This phrase refers to the fact that everything must undergo change with the progress of time by nature’s law.
16. Why does the poet say, ‘thy eternal summer shall not fade’?
Answer: The poet is confident about the fact that his friend’s beauty defies the effect of all devouring time just because the poet immortalizes it in his poetry.
17. “…..thy eternal summer shall not fade” –In what sense is summer ‘eternal’ here?
Answer: The youth’s summer is not ‘eternal’ in itself but only in so far as it is caught and preserved in Shakespeare’s verses.
18. “Nor shall death brag thou wand’rest in his shade.” –What does the poet mean to say here?
Answer: Death, a great braggart, takes all earthly things into darkness of graves, but its icy hand cannot touch the beauty of the poet’s friend because Shakespeare’s verses will deprive death of its devouring power.
19. What shall not death brag?
Answer: Death proudly declares his power over all creatures but it cannot touch the youth and beauty of the poet’s friend when the poet’s verses eternalize them.
20. “….to time thou grow’st” –Why does the poet say this?
Answer: Whereas all other beauties inevitably wane as time passes, in the case of the poet’s friend the flow of time will rather enhance the beauty.
21. Which lines are called ‘eternal lines’ and why?
Answer: Lines of Shakespeare’s verse which will survive the ravage of time are called ‘eternal lines’ because they will be read forever.
22. “What in eternal lines to time thou grow’st” –What does this line reflect on the mood of the poem?
Answer: This line reflects the poet’s heart-felt confidence in his love and in the power of his poetry.
23. “So long as men can breathe….” What does it suggest?
Answer: It suggests the time period as long as men live on earth.
24. “So long as … eyes can see…” What does it suggest?
Answer: It suggests the time period as long as men read poetry.
25. “By chance, or nature’s changing course untrimmed” –Explain in a sentence.
Answer: Beautiful creatures and things must become unattractive in course of time.
26. “And summer’s lease hath all too short a date” –What does ‘date’ mean here?
Answer: Here ‘date’ means the time or the tenure of the lease –the tenancy cannot continue beyond the date.
27. How can the poet’s friend ‘grow’ eternally?
Answer: The poet’s friend grows eternally because as time goes, more and more, readers will appreciate his beautiful image, recorded in the poet’s sonnets.
28. “So long live this, and this gives life to thee.” –What does ‘this’ mean here?
Answer: Here ‘this’ means the poetry the poet is writing on his friend’s beauty.
29. “Nor shall death brag …..” Why does the poet use the word ‘brag’ here?
Answer: The poet, William Shakespeare in his Sonnet No. 18, aptly uses the word ‘brag’ to express the angry, proud and awful nature of the greatest universal agent of mortality, that is, Death.
30. What does the poet, William Shakespeare reveal in the first quatrain of the Sonnet No. 18?
Answer: In the first quatrain of Sonnet No. 18, William Shakespeare establishes the simile between the beauty of summer days and that of his young friend, and probably the young man’ superiority.
31. What does the poet, William Shakespeare reveal in the second quatrain of the Sonnet No. 18?
Answer: In the second quatrain, the poet considers the changing face of summer.
32. What does the poet, William Shakespeare reveal in the third quatrain of the Sonnet No. 18?
Answer: In the third quatrain, the poet wants to bestow immutability to his young friend through poetry.
*****
Also Read:
* Shall I Compare thee to a Summer's Day – M.C.Q
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