WBCHSE Board Class 12th English "Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day" or Sonnet No 18 || Broad Notes || Textual Question Answers || Short Questions & Answers || Broad type Questions || Exam Oriented Questions & Answers || 2023 English Suggestive Notes || Title of Sonnet No 18 : Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day

 "Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day"

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Sonnet No 18 by William Shakespeare || Broad Notes || Textual Question Answers

1.) Write a note on the significance of the title ‘Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day’.

In Sonnet 18 Shakespeare hesitates to compare his friend's beauty to a summer’s day. According to him, his friend is lovelier and more temperate than summer. Summer has many shortcomings. The brightness of summer has no consistency and the time span of summer is very brief. But the poet believes that his friend has an everlasting beauty. The cold touch of death is unable to claim it. Instead, with time his beauty will grow through his immortal poetry. This sort of hesitation is directly reflected through the first line of the poem and the same line is chosen as the title of the poem. Thus it reflects the very essence of the sonnet. Hence the title is quite appropriate.

2.) “And every fair from fair sometimes declines”-Why does the poet use the word ‘fair’ twice ? How does this fair decline ? How will it be retained with the poet’s young friend ?

Here the poet has used the word ‘fair’ twice for its dual meaning. The two meanings are -i. beauty and ii. beautiful things.

According to the poet every beautiful thing of nature loses its beauty either by chance or by nature’s changing course.

Beauty declines as it is mentioned in the poem that darling buds are destroyed, and the colour of the sun is dimmed. But the beauty of the poet’s friend will remain forever. It is not subject to decay or destruction. Time or the dark realm of death will not affect the beauty of his friend. Actually the poet wants to say that perfect beauty becomes immortal when used in pure art.

3.) ‘But thy eternal summer shall not fade’-Whose eternal summer is referred to here ? What is meant by eternal summer ? Why will eternal summer not fade ?

The ‘eternal summer’ of the poet’s friend in Shakespeare's ‘Sonnet No-18’ is referred to in the above quoted line.

In the above quoted line ‘eternal summer’ means the everlasting beauty or unfading beauty of the poet’s friend.

The eternal summer in the above quoted line refers to the lustrous or glamorous beauty of the poet’s male friend. The poet wants to compare the beauty of his friend to a summer’s day. But after considering the shortcomings of summer’s day, he decides not to compare the beauty of his friend to a summer’s day. The poet says that he will make the beauty of his friend eternal through his immortal verses i.e through his poetry. In his words-

“So long as men can breathe or eyes can see

So long lives this and gives life to thee”.

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