Sonnet 18

1 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:

 5 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

 10 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.

1. AUTHOR

**William Shakespeare**

\* April 26, 1564

† April 23, 1616

- English poet and playwright

- widely regarded as the greatest writer of the English language and one of the greatest in Western literature

- wrote about thirty-eight plays and 154 sonnets, as well as a variety of other poems

- Already a popular writer in his own lifetime

- most quoted writer in the literature

- Globe Theatre in London (since 1599)

2. TRANSLATION

Soll ich dich mit einem Sommertag vergleichen?

Obwohl du viel milder und lieblicher bist:

Der starke Wind bringt die Knospen zum schwanken,

Und bald wird der Sommer vergehen:

Manchmal glüht das Auge des Himmels zu stark,

Oft auch verhüllt sich seine goldene Spur,

Und seiner Schönheit Fülle muss verblühen

Im nicht mehr ruhenden Wechsel der Natur.

Nie aber soll dein ewiger Sommer schwinden,

*Übersetzung Sonnet 18*

*Soll ich dich mit einem Sommertag vergleichen?*

*Du bist viel schöner und anmutiger*

*Sturmwinde schütteln die Maiblütenkränze*

*Und viel zu früh eilt das Ende des Sommers herbei*

*Manchmal brennt das Auge zu heiß vom Himmelszelt*

*Oft ist sein goldener Schimmer getrübt*

*Manchmal geht die Schönheit schnell vorüber*

*Durch Zufall oder Wandel der Natur*

*Aber dein ewiger Sommer sollte nie vergeh’n*

*Oder den Besitz deiner Schönheit verlieren*

*Noch
sollst du nie im Schatten des Todes wandeln*

*Da diese Zeilen dich auf ewige Zeit erhalten*

*So lange Männer atmen und Augen sehen,*

*besteht dies fort und schenkt dir Leben.*

3. ANALYSIS

3.1 Analysis line 1-5

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,

line 1:

- comparing person with a summer day

- rethorical question that introduces the summer day as the main metaphor

line 2:

- 'temperate' = pun

 -> two meanings:

         1. beloved person is self restraint

         2. mild weather on the summer day

line 3 & 4:

- personification: actions of the wind, buds are called 'darling'

- metaphor: 'darling buds' stands for a 'life in plant world'

line 5:

- personification: sun = 'eye of the heaven'

3.2 Analysis line 6-9

line 6:

- Double Entendre: complexion = 'internal well-being'

- metaphor: dimm'd = 'plants need light'

line 9:

-personification: eternal summer = 'describing nature in terms of nature'

4. METRE

- classic Shakespearean sonnet

- fourteen lines in very regular iambic pentameter

- rhyme scheme: ABAB CDCD EFEF GG