“Shall I compare thee...?” and “My Mistress’ eyes...”

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Shall I compare thee...?   and   “My Mistress eyes...

The purposes of these poems were to express feelings about love and eternity. I think that both these sonnets were written for private viewing. Though I do think that ‘Shall I compare thee’ could be for both private and public viewing because of the last couplet that says

“So long as men can breath or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee”

Therefore, he is saying that other people will read this in the future.

Beginning a poem with “Shall I…” sounds more flattering and complimentary than “My mistress…” because by saying ‘shall I’ you are almost saying dare I compare the wonderful likes of you with an ordinary summers day. “My mistress…” just sounds bland and uncomplimentary.

The sonnet consists of 14 lines, each with 10 stressed and unstressed syllables known as iambic pentameter. In each quatrain a different subject is discussed and described, the subject is then changed at the start of each new quatrain. This sonnet has the rhyming pattern ABABCDCDEFEFGG.

‘Shall I compare thee’ is set with 3 quatrains and one couplet at the end. The first quatrain sets the comparison or question/problem, quatrain 2 and 3 extend on it and says that she is even more beautiful, though I think that quatrain 3 makes the poem more complicated and makes the reader puzzled and try to figure what Shakespeare was trying to say. Then finally the last couplet solves the problem in two simple lines that brings every thing together.

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“Shall I compare thee to a Summers day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

Rough windes do shake the darling buds of Maie,

And Sommers lease hath all too short a date:

This sonnet written by Shakespeare is to a woman he loves. In the sonnet, he describes the beauty of the woman and he debates whether or not to compare her to a summer’s day.

Shakespeare uses imagery in the poem, so that we can “see” the summer day, and understand what he is comparing to his love. The poem also uses personification to make the ...

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