FRESHMEN/ The Shakespearean Sonnets

Sonnet XVIII

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:

Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;
And every fair from fair sometimes declines,
By Chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;

But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee

How can you analyze a Shakespearean poem?
q First, read the poem more than once in a loud voice and try to understand every part of it.
q Attempt to mark the speaker in the poem and to whom is he/she speaking? Determine the theme of the poem. Focus on the tone, is it happy or sad?
q Get a dictionary and look up the difficult words and write down their meanings. If you cannot understand the meaning in English refer to the Arabic.
q Read again for the last time before you begin to write down some notes.