Paraphrase of shall i compare thee to a summer's day

Literature

1. What was your first reaction to the poem? Did you find it difficult to read? Or did you find it easy? Did you understand it all at once? Or did you have to read it a number of times to get the meaning? Did you find the paraphrase helpful or unnecessary?

2. What stood out to you when you were reading? Were you drawn to any parts in particular? If so, which parts and why did they stand out?

3. Was this a poem you can relate to? If so, how?

4. Did you enjoy reading and hearing the poem recited aloud? If so, why? If not, why not?

5. Do you have any other comments you would like to share with the group?

Original Paraphrase

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Shall I compare you to a summer's day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate: You are more lovely and gentle:

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, Rough winds shake the flowering buds in May,

And summer's lease hath all too short a date; And summer does not last for very long;

Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines, Sometimes the sun shines too brightly,

And often is his gold complexion dimmed; And often is the sun dimmed by clouds;

And every fair from fair sometimes declines, And everything beautiful declines in beauty,

By chance or nature's changing course untrimmed; Either by chance or the course of nature;

But thy eternal summer shall not fade, But your eternal beauty will not fade,

Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st; Or lose possession of its loveliness;

Nor shall death brag thou wand'rest in his shade, Even death will not be able to claim you,

When in eternal lines to Time thou grow'st: When you continue to grow in these lines of poetry:

So long as men can breath, or eyes can see, As long as men can breath, or eyes can see,

So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. This poem lives, and this poem gives life to you.

Now, re-read the original. As you re-read, notice that the sonnet follows a very particular format. The entire poem is 14 lines long, and each line has ten syllables. The poem also follows an ABABCDCDEFEFGG rhyme scheme. In other words, the first line ends with "day" (we'll call the sound A) and rhymes with "May" in the third line. The second line ends with "temperate" (we'll call the sound B) and rhymes with "date" in the fourth line. "Shines" (we'll call the sound C) rhymes with "declines." "Dimmed" (we'll call the sound D) rhymes with "untrimmed," and so on. The poem ends with a rhyming couplet, G and G, "see" and "thee."