PART 1

Sonnet 18, often alternatively titled Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?, is one of the best-known of 154 sonnets written by the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare. Part of the Fair Youth sequence (which comprises sonnets 1–126 in the accepted numbering stemming from the first edition in 1609), it is the first of the cycle after the opening sequence now described as the procreation sonnets.

In the sonnet, the speaker asks whether or not he should compare his beloved to the summer season, and argues that he should not because the comparison does not properly express the depths of his emotion. He also states that his beloved will live on forever through the words of the poem. Sonnet 18 is written in the typical Shakespearean sonnet form having 14 lines of iambic pentameter ending in a rhymed couplet. Detailed exegeses have revealed several double meanings within the poem, giving it a greater depth of interpretation.

Definition of Sonnet

A sonnet is a lyric, invariably, of fourteen lines, usually in iambic pentameter, restricted to a definite rhyme scheme.

Types of Sonnet

There are three dominant types of sonnet, all named after their founders or perfecters:

Petrarchan sonnet 皮特拉克十四行诗

Spenserian sonnet 斯宾塞体十四行诗

Shakespearean sonnet 莎士比亚式十四行诗

Shakespearian Sonnet

Also known as the English Sonnet, consists of three quatrains followed by a couplet.

• The rhyme scheme is abab cdcd efef gg.

• A theme is developed in the quatrains, and a concluding thought is presented in the couplet.

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was an English poet, playwright and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world’s pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England’s national poet and the “Bard of Avon”. His extant works, including collaborations, consist of approximately 39 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.