caroline

Caroline Dengler February 17, 2009 Period 5 Poetry Analysis Project // Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 // Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer’s lease hath all too short a date: Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimmed; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance or nature’s changing course untrimmed; But thy eternal summer shall not fade, Not lose possession of that fair thou owest; Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shad, When in eternal lines to time thou growest: So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, So long lives this, and his gives life to thee. Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 is broken up into four parts. The different parts are set apart by their rhyme schemes. The first quatrain’s rhyme scheme is ABAB. The second quatrain, lines five through eight, has a rhyme scheme of CDCD. Quatrain three’s rhyme scheme is EFEF. Finally, the last two lines of the poem rhyme together. This part of a poem is referred to as a couplet. Several comparisons are made in this poem; the poem is one big comparison. A simile is a comparison between two things using the words like or as, however none are used in this poem. Shakespeare chose to use only metaphors. Which are comparisons that are made without using the words like or as; it is more of a statement. Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and temperate: This metaphor compares the subject to a nice and mild summer day. This could be interpreted as the subject having an easygoing calm personality. Then later on in the poem the subject (thee) is referred to as having a dimmed complexion and his fairness (pleasing appearance) is sometimes lessened. Shakespeare used imagery and figurative descriptions when composing in order to convey specific emotions. When rough winds shake the darling buds of May the audience gets a feeling of unease due to the fact that two different extremes are being presented. I imagine a storm suddenly blowing in that kills all of the newly bloomed flowers. Two lines that are very prominent are So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. this makes us believe that the presence of the subject will last forever, the concept of feeling the presence of death for as long as men breathe and eyes see is very powerful. Death is personified in line eleven, “Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade,” meaning that death is always close by, it tempts people into doing dangerous things. // Thinking Through the Literature (questions one and two on page 234) // // Millay’s Sonnet 30 // Love is not all: it is not meat nor drink Nor slumber nor a roof against the rain; Nor yet a floating spar to men that sink And rise and sink and rise and sink again; Love can not fill the thickened lungs with breath, Nor clean the blood, nor set the fractured bone; Yet many a man is making friends with death Even as I speak, for lack of love alone. It well may be that in a difficult hour, Pinned down by pain and moaning for release, Or nagged by want past resolution’s power, I might be driven to sell your love for peace, Or trade the memory of this night for food. It well may be. I do not think I would. Millay’s sonnet defines what love is not. I think he is comparing love to humans need to survive. Millay did not use any similes in the poem; most of the comparison is done using metaphors and other figurative devices. Love is not meat, drink, slumber, a roof against the rain or a floating spar to sinking men. The speaker is using these things to express how much love is needed. Imagery was used frequently so that the reader could get a clear understanding of what the speaker is saying. The last three lines stand out because of the imagery. I might be driven to sell your love for peace, Or trade the memory of this night for food. It well may be. I do not think I would. When I read that I imagine someone who is very desperate, and faced with a dilemma. The dilemma is whether to keep the love and their memories or live. It would be hard to choose one. Death is also personified in this poem, “Yet a man is making friends with death.” To me this mean that one is frequently involved in potentially fatal activities while in love, just as one is involved with friends. // Connect to the Literature (on page 236) // 1. I found lines five and six of Millay’s Sonnet 30 the most memorable. “Love can not fill the thickened lung with breath, Nor clean the blood, nor set the fractured bone;” I think that is stating that love is rough and painful and will not make you whole. You will enter into a relationship and exit it the same person. No matter what you do in the relationship you will always be yourself. Love heals nothing, it only creates problems. // Think Critically (questions on page 236) // 2. “Love is not all” meaning that you can not survive solely on love. Every human needs several basic things for survival: food, water, shelter and love. The details that are used to explain why love is not, all are needed: meat, drink, slumber or a roof against the rain. 4. The speakers over all opinion of love is that it is good and bad. You need love in order to survive but it does not make any of your pain go away. // Extend Interpretations (questions on page 236) // 5. Yes, I think that Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 and Millay’s Sonnet 30 follow the same structure. Both are written in iambic pentameter and fallow the same rhyme scheme. They are composed of three quatrains, each rhyming the last word of every other line, and one couplet that rhyme together. 6. The poems convey the same messages about love as people do today. The only thing that has changed about love is the way it is expressed by different people. People my talk differently today then when Shakespeare and Millay wrote their poems but love is love, the way people define it has not changed.
 * 1) The basic comparison the poem is making is of a young man to the sun.
 * 2) The speaker feels that the person being addressed is beautiful, caring, and gentle. I can infer this from the fallowing quotes “thou art more lovely and more temperate,” “But thy eternal summer shall not fade, nor lose possession of that fair owest.”