Words: 887
In the poem “Shall I Compare Thee To A Summer’s Day? ” the author describes his lover to the unrivaled beauty that is summer. The season has made itself a good reputation for being very warm, comfortable, and relaxing. Many other lyricists, artists, and poets have described summer as being “too short” or have made statements about how summer lasts longer when spent with ones you love. No freebs when the author describes the love for his woman in this poem, he says that she is perfect and has an everlasting beauty.
The poem also has a point of view suggesting that the author believes that he is not good enough for the girl he is writing the poem to. If looked at in that manner, this poem takes on a whole different meaning. In this light, then the author is flattering the girl he loves so that she may love him. I addition, most all of William Shakespeare’s poems are looked at as being love poems. Don’t Steal This helps support the theory that the poem has a romantic and loving tone to it. The author attempts to display his love for the love in his life by saying things like the phrases in line two.
The line states, “Don’t Steal Thou art more lovely and more temperate” the author writes that the girl being written to is more lovely and, by temperate meaning perfect weather with absolute calmness, perfect and calm than the season itself. These lines introduce the theme of the poem instantly, without room for misinterpretation. If someone were to read these lines, they would instantly see the love the author shows for his lover. Also, if someone were temperate, they would be perfect. If the author is indeed trying to tell the girl he is writing to in this poem how perfect she is, it would be in a romantic tone.
The author makes a reference to his love being “golden”, or perfect, in a sense. The line that shows the love the author has for his subject is the phrase, “And often her gold complexion dimmed”. These lines infer the fact that the author’s lover is very beautiful, such as gold. Also, she sometimes dims her glamorous shimmering to show how beautiful she is without all the gold. The fact that she is gold is showing, again, how beautiful she is. When the author calls his love golden, it can also mean that she is perfect. Gold is often used to represent perfection or first- class.
Don’t Steal So it can only be assumed that the girl is being referred to as perfect. Thus, this is another reference to the girl being too good for him and the author trying to make the girl fall in love with him via flattery. The author makes a reference to the figure of Death in line eleven in an attempt to display how his love’s beauty shall not wither and die. This line states, “Nor shall Death brag thou wand’rest in his shade. ” the author states that Death cannot have his love because of life’s “breathing”. When life “breathes”, then people love the person, and this keeps them alive.
Don’t Steal When someone is kept alive, then they are free from death, and therefore, can be with their love forever (in this case, the author wants the girl to be with him). Also, the statement that Death is “bragging” suggests that the author’s lover is something of a treasure to all who look upon her. It would bring Death great pleasure to have her, but the author says this will never happen, as a reference to the girl’s “eternal beauty”. Lines eight and nine state, “By chance or nature’s course untrimmed: But thy eternal summer shall not fade”.
If nature’s course truly cannot be trimmed, or shortened, then the seasons will last longer. In this analogy, the author’s lover is being referred to, so the natural conclusion is that she is the one who will have a lasting beauty. However, the context is not entirely clear, so the lines could be referring to the author’s love for the girl being written to. If this is the case, the author could be the nature whose course is untrimmed. Then the love of the author ill last longer than it would. The poem “Shall I Compare Thee To A Summer’s Day? ” the tone of the poem can be looked at in many ways.
The author’s love for the girl referred to in the poem, and writes plainly of the beauty and desire he has for her. The girl written to is “out of the author’s league” by the way the poem is written, and the author is attempting to make the girl fall in love with him. As the author writes the poem the lines about her beauty stand out the most. The author also clearly states that his love for the girl in the poem is very much in love with the girl. If there were any girl being read this poem, they would most certainly find it to be romantic and loving. These are the reasons why the tone of the poem has a romantic and deeply loving theme to it.