POET PROFILE Name: William Shakespeare (c.1564–1616)
Nationality: English (born in Stratford Upon Avon) Fact:
There are no birth records for Shakespeare, only a record of his baptism on 26 April 1564. Scholars celebrate his birthday on 23 April as it is believed that, going by his baptism date, this is when he might have been born.
PREPARE
In this sonnet, the poet compares his lover to a summer’s day. As you read the poem, notice which words are positive and which are negative. Use a pencil to draw a + sign above the positive words and a – sign above the negative words. Alternatively, draw two columns and write the positive and negative elements into the appropriate columns.
W7.8
Positive images/words/phrases Negative images/words/phrases Summer’s day
Rough winds
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? by William Shakespeare
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 dimm’d; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d; 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: So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
