Sonnet 18

= 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.

William Shakespeare: translation:
 * one of the greatest poets and dramatists of the world
 * baptised on the 26th of april 1564 in Stratford-on Avon in England
 * died on the 23rd of april 1616
 * went to a local grammar school, never to an university
 * at the age of 18 he married Anne Hathaway --> they had three children
 * moved to London and worked there as an actor, writer and formed his own company--> the Lord Chamberlain`s Men
 * 154 sonnets and 38 plays in total
 * most famous plays: Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet

Soll ich dich mit einem Sommertag vergleleichen?

Dich der du lieblicher und milder bist.

Raue Winde schütteln die lieblichen Maiblüten,

Und kurz nur währt des Sommers Herrlichkeit.

Oft ist des Himmels Augenschein zu heiß,

Und oft ist sein goldenes Aussehen verdunkelt;

Und alles Schöne wird seine Schönheit irgendwann verlieren,

Aber dein ewiger Sommer soll nicht schwinden;

Noch sollst du die Schönheit die du besitzt verlieren

Noch soll der Tod damit prahlen, dass du in seinem Schatten wanderst,

Wenn du in den ewigen Zeilrn der Zeit wächst:

So lange Menschen atmen odder Augen sehen,

So lange wird das hier leben und dir leben geben.

What is a Sonnet:

A Sonnet is a poem written in a certain format. There are certain characteristics to identify a Sonnet. It has 14 lines, a strict rhyme scheme, and it is written in iambic Pentameter. A Sonnet can be broken down into four sections called quatrains. The first three quatrains contain four lines each and use an alternating rhyme scheme(ABAB). The final quatrain consists of just two lines which both rhyme.

Interpretation:

At the beginning Shakespeare asks if he shall compare thee(you) to a summer's day. Then the poet compares the beauty of an unidentified person to a summer's day and comes to the conclusion that this persons beauty is more beautiful than summer (because the summer is short, there are often storms and clouds can cover the sun). It also says that every beautiful thing will lose its beauty sometime by accident or on a natural way. BUT this person's beauty shall not decline. The person is even not in the shadow of the Death so he can't reach her. At the end Shakespeare says that his poem is able to do what nobody else can do because as long as there are people on this earth, reading his poem, it will give life to the unidentified person.

Stylistic devises:

line 1 : rhetorical question

line 3,4,9 : personification

line 12 : metaphor