Compare "Shall I Compare Thee To a Summer's Day?" (poem 1) by William Shakespeare and "First Love" ( poem 2) by John Clare.

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Moi Dafydd 10 Tegid       GCSE coursework             5th January, 2005

 Task: Compare “Shall I Compare Thee To a Summer’s Day?” (poem 1) by William Shakespeare and “First Love” ( poem 2) by John Clare.

 The first poem that I am going to write about is, “Shall I Compare Thee To a Summer’s Day?” (poem 1) by William Shakespeare. This is Shakespeare’s 18th sonnet and is one of the best-known sonnets in English Literature.

 Poem 1 is about a man who compares his lover to a summer’s day; he uses the summer and the weather to emphasise how beautiful his lover is. The poet compares his lover to a summer’s day because everyone prefers the summer to any other season.  The writer didn’t compare his lover to a winter’s day because it would seem that the writer didn’t like his lover if he had compared her to the rain or to the fog.  I think that the poet is trying to convey his lover as beautiful and that another woman couldn’t compare with her, the phrase  “Thou art…more temperate” emphasises this.  She will be beautiful forever too in Shakespeare’s mind.

   The first four lines are a logical argument to prove that a summer’s day is inferior to his lover, she is “more lovely and more temperate” He also sees that the summer is more unpredictable than she is,  “Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May”.  He  notes as well that the summer doesn’t last as long as her beauty.  “And summer’s lease hath all too short a date” He shows this contrast between his lover and the summer.  He also conveys that the summer isn’t always beautiful.

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   Faults are pointed out- for example the weather in lines five and six       (the sun can be too hot at times). “Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines” or it can simply not shine at all, “And often is his gold complexion dimmed”.  This makes a poor comparison to his love because it is totally different too. “Thou art….more temperate”  The poet is contradicting his own words.

    The quotation  “nature’s changing course” refers to the fact that the weather won’t stay the same for long.  Summer turns to autumn eventually and this ...

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