Shakespeare uses similes and compares his mistress to a beautiful day in summer but his lover is better than the summers’ day.
“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”
It shows that the lady is the best, as in summer’s day, everything has grown strongly, and it is the most beautiful season. During the summer, the bird’s fly and animals are enjoy the happy long day. In summer’s day, everything is fertile, which creates new life. However, Shakespeare’s mistress is even better than the summer’s day, because she is “More lovely and more temperate”. It uses “temperate” to describe the lady is not too hot and too cold which the Elizabethan time admired.
Shakespeare also compared the “buds of May” with his lover.
“Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May.”
He used the alliteration “rough wind” which imitates the sound of the wind when it is destructive. May is the best season for many people, but in Shakespeare’s eyes, his lover is even better as the weather in May sometimes is “too short”, sometimes too hot. Sometimes it is windy; the wind also destroys the “darling buds” of the leaves, which allow the tree to breathe.
Finally, in line eight, he uses “ but” in “ but thy eternal summer shall no fade”, a logical, powerful and confident sentence when he start to compare the lady’s present life with her future death.
“Nor shall Death brag thou wand’ rest in his shade”
It says that even sun is shining, wind is blowing, but the lady still will die in the future. Shakespeare uses hushed staccato sound and the emotion of fear and frightens to describe his lovers absence of emotion when she is in the tomb.
He used the vivid term “shade” to describe the darkness of the Hades she is “wand’ rest” as she is scared, she does not know where to go. However, her mystery will still live in the poem for eternity.
The Sonnet ends with the strong and happy conclusion:
“So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So ling lives this, and this gives life to thee.”
Poem is stronger than death, she will be eternity, and she never died in the readers’ mind as soon as they can read the beautiful Sonnet 18.
W H Anden’s “STOP ALL THE CLOCKS” is written in 1930s. He writes about his lover and her death. He tried to remember his lover by planning a funny funeral to celebrate his wonderful life. He creates a vivid colourful picture by using the
“ White nicks of the public doves and black cotton gloves”.
In this poem, W H Auden uses some modern comparison image to amaze the reader. For example he uses telephone, aeroplane and traffic, which were very up to date in 1930.
“Let aeroplane circle moaning overhead, scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead.”
When the people died, other people will send them the cards for remembrance to express their sadness. The writer uses the huge sky and the big aeroplane to show his sadness. He uses alliteration of “ scribbling” and “ sky” which begin with “ s” as word music. All these are witty comparisons.
You can feel the writer use his sense of humour to make the poem witty and full of funny things when you read the line.
“ Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone.”
“Juicy bone ” is not romantic and grave. This is also not normal in a poem about dead lovers, which is usually sad and sensitive.
Auden also uses the “ white necks of the public doves” which is normally used in a marriage and a symbol for peace. “Crepe bows” are black bow ties, which for the white doves makes the pictures even more colourful.
In the third stanza of the poem, the writer used nine repetition of MY to show how important his friend was for him; he thinks about him everywhere and all the time.
“ My North, my South, my East and West,”
Here, he compares his friend to the compass—show him the direction and help him to survive.
“My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;”
It shows that the writer thinks about his friend all the time.
The last verse, he uses “ I was wrong” which is dramatic to bring the reader into the sad mood.
This poem also compares his lover to the nature—the stars, the Sun, the Moon, the Ocean and the woods, which make the reader feel sad, feel upset.
My sadness of reading this poem is strongest in the last line.
“ For nothing now can ever come to any good.”
The single word and monosyllables here make a broken sentence and a slow rhythm like the beating of the clock and the end of time, as the title said
“ STOP ALL THE CLOCKS”
Both poems talk about emotion love and the poet’s feeling. However, there are also a many differences between them. Shakespeare writes about love by using traditional metaphors. Whereas in Auden’s poem, he compares the love with 20th inventions and makes his poem modern. The use of language in these two poems is different because Shakespeare uses complex language as that is 400 years old, whereas, ballad is simple and easy understanding. These two poems also show that Shakespeare and Auden have different philosophy view on life: Shakespeare was optimistic and Auden is passionate. These differences give the reader different feeling when they read their poem. I enjoyed more Shakespeare’s Sonnet, as it is more romantic and more traditional. He also created a beautiful poem. But Auden’s poem is too gloomy as he compared love with funeral.
