Sonnet 18英文赏析

Sonnet 18

William Shakespeare

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? /ei/ a Thou art more lovely and more temperate. /eit/ b Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, /ei/ a And summer's lease hath too short a date. /eit/ b

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, /aiz/ c And often is his gold complexion dimm’d; /imd/ d And every fair from fair sometime declines, /aiz/ c By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimm’d. /imd/ d

But thy eternal summer shall not fade, /eid/ e Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st; / ??st/ f Nor shall Death brag thou wand'rest in his shade, /eid/ e When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st. / ??st/ f

So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, /i:/ g So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. /i:/ g

Introduction(起) ----- Elucidation(承) ----- Transition(转) ----- Conclusion(合)

Sonnet 18 is one of the best-known of 154 sonnets written by the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare.

From phonological level, the poem consists of 14 lines, three quatrains followed by a couplet. Each line in this sonnet contains ten syllables and is written in iambic pentameter, in which each line has five feet, in other words, a pattern of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable is repeated five times. For example, the first line can be divided into five independent feet as “Shall I / compare / thee to/ a sum/mer's day” with stresses on I, -pare, to, sum-, day respectively.

The rhyme scheme of this poem is a-b-a-b, c-d-c-d, e-f-e-f, g-g. The last word of line 1 “day” and that of line 3 “May” have the same end rhyme: /ei/; line 2 and line 4 rhyme with /eit/. These four lines form a quatrain. Similarly, the four lines from line 5 to line 8 form the second quatrain, and line 9 to line 12 the third quatrain. However, the last two lines have the end rhyme:/i:/ and form a couplet. Usually, a theme (problem, situation or idea) is developed and elaborated in the quatrains and a concluding thought (solution, comment or summary) is presented in the couplet. The 7 rhymes throughout the poem contribute to the

realization of textual coherence by phonological cohesion.

Line 6 and line 7 begin with the same word “And”; line 10 and line 11 “Nor”; the last two lines “So”. The repetition of the first word can enhance the strength of the poem. For instance, the repetition of “So” strengthens the eternity of beauty.

The poem inline has alliteration ( “shall” and “summer” in line 1, “do” and “darling” in line3, “summer” and “short” in line 4, “chance” and “changing” in line 8, “shall” and “shade” in line 11, and “long”, “lives” and “life” in the lastl line ), assonance (“or” and “course” in line 8, “but” and “summer” in line 9, and“lines”and “time” in line 12) and rhyme(“winds” and “buds” in line 3, “chance” and “course” in line 8, “lives” and “gives” , and “this” and “thee”in the last line). All these not only reflect the formal beauty of poetry, but also embody the beauty of vocal range and phonological harmony.

From lexical level, old words are used in this sonnet. For example, thee=you(宾格), thou=you(主格), thy=your, art=are, hath=has, sometime=sometimes.

From the rhetorical perspective，some figures of speech are in use in this sonnet like simile(thee—a summer’s day), metaphor(summer’s duration—a lease, the sun—the eye of heaven), personification(summer—has a short lease, sun— has golden complexion, death—brag thee in his shade, poem—gives life to thee), inversion(line 11,line 14), rhetoric question(line 1) , exaggeration(the eternal summer, line 11), pun(line 7) and paradox.

From the perspective of content and structure, line 1—2 are proposal; line 3—12 are argument; line 13—14 are conclusion. In the first two lines of the poem, the speaker compares his beloved to the summer season, in the form of a flattering rhetoric question to the beloved and a firm answer that his beloved is better, more beautiful and less extreme than summer. Summer is chosen as the comparison target because in England, summer is not hot but comfortably warm and it is the most pleasant season of the year. In addition, summer stands for youthfulness. Then the next six lines list some negative things about summer: the wind is too strong—“Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May” ; summer is short—\hath all too short a date\

hot—\the beloved has beauty that will last forever, unlike the fleeting beauty of a summer's day. By putting his love's beauty into the form of poetry, the poet is preserving it forever. The lover's beauty will live on, through the poem which will last as long as it can be read. He also states that his beloved will live on forever through the words of the poem.

From the thematic level, see from the shallow layer, the poem is simply to praise the beauty of the beloved. While in a deep sense, it expresses that the beauty in nature is transient, such as a nice summer’s day, while the art in general (poetry in particular) is immortal. Shakespeare has a resolute faith that poetry can defy time and last forever.

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