Grade 12 – English FAL
Sonnet 18 – 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, 5
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimmed;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st, 10
Nor shall death brag thou wand’rest 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.
1.1 Refer to the structure of the poem.
a. What type of sonnet is this? (1)
b. Discuss the structure. (2)
1.2 Identify the figure of speech in lines 5-6 and explain the contrast in these
lines. (2)
1.3 “… the eye of heaven shines” is an example of personification.
Using your own words, explain why the speaker uses this image here. (2)
1.4 Give ONE word for the speaker’s tone in line 9 (“But thy eternal summer
shall not fade.”) (2)
1.5 Identify and discuss the theme evident in this poem. (3)
1.6 Refer to the poem as a whole.
In your opinion, how does the speaker convince the reader that his lover’s
beauty is superior to the beauty of summer? (3)
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MARKING GUIDELINE
1.1 a. Shakespearean / English sonnet OR
Italian / Petrarchan sonnet (this sonnet has elements of both) (1)
b. 3 quatrains – followed by a rhyming couplet
Rhyme scheme: abab cdcd efef gg OR
Octave and sestet / Petrarchan sonnets typically discussed the love
and beauty of a beloved / the word “but” in line 9 indicates a change
of thought (2)
1.2 Metaphor – the sun is compared to “the eye of heaven”. (2)
1.3 The heat/intensity of the sun
The sun is an active force that causes discomfort, thus the use of
personification. (2)
1.4 Confidence / admiration / emphatic tone (accept any one) (1)
1.5 Beauty transcends time / is eternal.
His poem immortalises her beauty.
What is written about in poetry is eternal.
1.6 He says that the beauty of his lover will last forever, unlike the fleeting beauty
of a summer day.
She is more temperate (constant/unlikely to change dramatically or
significantly) than the usual English summer’s day.
She has none of the weather’s imperfections like extremes in temperature or
wind, or the shortness of the season.
Nor is her lovely nature as transitory (temporary) as the positive things in
summer. (Remember that the English summer is very short in comparison to
what we are used to.) (3)
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