‘sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines’
This phrase uses strong words and a metaphor. The word ‘hot’ is a violent word and shows us that not all the time is summer ‘just right’. This word is made more intense by the use of the word ‘too’, which is placed before hot making the summer sound tedious. This part of the line leads into the use of a metaphor to describe the sun.
‘eye of heaven shines’
This metaphor is used very well to describe the sun, yet he believes that she is better than even this. Again this is used to reflect how much he admires her. Another example of the contrast in summer is;
‘and often is his hold complexion dim’d’
This shows us that summer can be too cold and dull compared to the extreme heat we show before. He personifies the sun by using the word ‘his’. This gives the sun human attributes and makes us more familiar with his theme. He uses some strong and violent words through out the sonnet to describe the weather, he uses a contrast of words; rough, hot, death and too short. These words are negative and he uses them to describe the unpredictability of a summer’s day. He uses words like; lovely, gold, fair, shines and eternal. These are positive words and describe not only the positive things about a summer’s day, but the word eternal talks about her and how she will live forever in his words.
The poet uses sounds effects such as alliteration and assonance. These sound effects create a gentle soft sound and make her better than all these rough violent words. Alliteration is used in ‘sommer shall’ and assonance is used in ‘loose possession’. These give continuous flow to the line and soften the sonnet from the short violent words that preceded them.
The poet also uses structure rhyme rhythm and tone throughout this sonnet. This sonnet is an Iambic pentameter. The structure of the sonnet is made up of an octave at the start and these first eight lines describe the aspects of summer and all the things that occur in it, good and bad. After the octave there is a turn this is where it changes from talking about the summer to talking about the woman. The sestet is the last six lines in the sonnet and changes from talking about the summer to comparing how much better she is than a summers day.
The rhyme throughout the sonnet is ab/ab/cd/cd/ef/ef/gg there are four different rhymes, this is line 1 A, line 2 B, line 3 A and line 4 B. The writer needs four (A) rhymes and four (B) rhymes. The rhythm through out the sonnet is when a stressed syllable follows an unstressed syllable occurring five times within a line. This is most evident in the couplets at the end of the sonnet. These words are; long, see, this, life and thee. These words are very stressed and they give the message of the whole sonnet.
The tone in the sonnet changes, in the octave the tone is negative and is describing a summer’s day this is portrayed by the use of words like; rough, hot and short. The tone then changes at the turn and becomes lighter. In the sestet the poet is writing about the woman so the tone is positive, this is seen when he uses words like; eternall. faire and not fade, these bring a happy tone to the sonnet.
The sonnet ‘shall I compare thee………..?’ shows us that he thinks this woman more beautiful than any summer day, it shows his great admiration for her and as long as the sonnet is read she will remain alive.
