Sonnet 18 Shall I Compare Thee to a

Sonnet 18 “Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day? ” by William Shakespeare

The Sonnet: Strict Structure 3. The sonnet form favored (but not invented) by William Shakespeare is the English Sonnet. 4. It is also called the Shakespearean Sonnet because he perfected the form. Free template from www. brainybetty. com 2

5. A Shakespearean Sonnet has 14 lines, which are divided into three quatrains (rhyming fourline stanzas) and a concluding couplet (pair of rhyming lines). 6. Each quatrain makes a point or gives an example and the couplet sums it up. 7. A Shakespearean Sonnet has the following rhyme scheme: abab, cdcd, efef, gg Free template from www. brainybetty. com 3

Vocabulary 8. temperate (adj) – mild and constant 9. lease (n) – hold 10. complexion (n) – skin tone 11. declines (v) – lessens 12. untrimmed (adj) – without trimmings/decorations 13. eternal (adj) - forever Free template from www. brainybetty. com 4

14. ow’st (v) – owes 15. wand’rest (v) – wanders 16. grow’st (v) - grows Free template from www. brainybetty. com 5

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 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. Free template from www. brainybetty. com 6