Good morning, everybody. How are you? Good. So
today, I think we are supposed to continue. Shall
I compare a summer's day? Last time, I think we
had a chance to listen to the poem from me reading
it and from other people singing or even reciting
it. Plus, you had ample time to look at the poem
and to respond. So today, we're starting by
listening to one or two of your responses. I'm
going to further ask you some questions related to
the poem, related to its content, to its
aesthetics, and then I'll be discussing the
aesthetic elements myself. Okay? Let's see. Yes,
please.
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Sonnet 18
is one of the best-known sonnets contained in the
English literary canon. It is a conventional
Shakespearean sonnet that explores a conventional
theme in an original way. Shakespeare uses this
poem or this sonnet to exalt poetry and his
beloved. The poem begins with a historical
question to present the suggestion of the
comparison between his friend and a summer's day.
The rhetorical question, of course, with no answer
because no way to compare his friend with the
summer's day, which in a sense is his friend more
lovely and temperate, though summer is the most
lovable season and Shakespeare refused at the same
time to compare it with his friend. In other
words, he just picked the summer day, which is
beautiful and natural scene to manifest that is
different beauty more than the beauties of the
summer day, summer's day. Shakespeare in these
lines, at the first one, especially the first
lines began to list the unpleasant features that
are probable to happen during the summer day. As
Shakespeare has used the eternal means, lines of
poetry to prove the death, but will not take his
friend, because as long as his life continues, his
friend will be of everlasting memorial. Talking
about the theme, it might be about the immorality
of his beloved through the eternal lines or in his
sonnet. The use of the figurative speech is
clearly seen. The metaphors simulate the
persification and alliteration. Finally, I want to
talk about the Shakespearean Sonnet. It is printed
as an unbroken 14 lines poem rather than as two
sections of eight lines and six lines. Thank you.
Okay, thank you very much. This is like more than,
you know, initial response. You know, she has the
courage to go and like to look at certain
aesthetic aspects. Okay, another, like there's
space for another response. Yes, please. Is it for
the first time? Okay, you come here.
Shall I Compare Thee is a poem wrote by
Shakespeare, the great Elizabethan writer and
actor and playwriter. And he wrote a sonnet. Wow,
Shakespeare has a great number of plays and great
drama and great number of sonnets. Anybody can
easily know who is Shakespeare. Shakespeare in his
sonnet make like a nice gift to his friends to
express his loyalty and how he is care about her.
He introduced his poem by asking her questions
which hold lovely and romantic meanings. The poem
is full of musical tunes. Summer in England is
beautiful and full of nice roses and blossom trees
and sunshine and great nice smell from the nature.
When he makes a question, he introduced his
respect for his friend and if he found beautiful
elements, he will remember her and imagine her
around in a beautiful scene of beauty and happy
and he will enjoy remembering her. The language
seems simple and common and he described the
beauty of summer and he saw her inside the
sunshine or the blossom trees. The tone of the
poem reflect his happiness of the beauty and
shyness of the summer days. Also the boy tries to
immortalize the beauty of his friend but he cannot
because life is mortal and we all will die. So he
decided to immortalize her her beauty by his
poetry among the generations. In addition, he uses
a lot of figure of speech to support his happiness
of summer. I think his friend deserves this
beautiful poem. It's clear from his respect for
her and he has enjoyed to share with her the
beautiful of summer days. Okay, so I think we have
a poet who is very sincere to his friend and he's
trying to do something To his friend, you know, I
say to his because you know this sonnet is
addressed to his friend William Harvey who was a
favorite of like Queen Elizabeth. I mean, there
are a lot of arguments about who's WH, but most of
the critics agree that it is William Harvey, a
close friend to Shakespeare, and he was dedicating
this poem to him. Now, I'm just like, I know it's
not like the layout, but it's good to look at. If
you all want to fix it, you can. So, now
Shakespeare at the beginning of this poem is
asking question, shall I compare thee to a
summer's day? Do you think, you know, he's
comparing? It's a question, but is Shakespeare
going to compare? Okay, why? So it's very tricky.
He's asking a question, and all of us think that
he's comparing. Is he comparing? But he's rather
what? Contrasting. No, he's not showing
similarities, but he's showing differences. Now,
the question is, what reasons? Yes. Does
Shakespeare have for not Comparing. Why, you know,
does he decline to compare? You know what means
decline? Just refuse. Why does he decline to
compare the beauty of his friend to the beauty of
someone? You can just make a list. Thank you, Ola.
Yeah, I think it is good. Yes, you can make a
small list. Why would he, yes, like, Not like to
compare.
Why you think?
You just make a list and you will see.
Yes?
Yes? Because Shakespeare thinks that summer's
beauty is fragile and can fail. Yes. And it's cold
by winter, so it's not warm. He thinks that... The
summer beauty is fragile and can be shaken, so
it's not... Yeah, so what he was like to say that
summers, like the beauty of summer is evanescent.
It's short-lived, short-lived. It is brief, it is
temporal. So the beauty of summer is short-lived.
Short-lived, very evanescent.
Very venesant, very temporal, okay? So, okay, this
one reason, another reason, like why? So what's
wrong with summer? It is short. What else? It is
hot. It is, no, it is hot and cold at the same
time. It is changeable. It is not consistent. So
when we're talking about summer, it is changeable.
It is fluctuating. I like the word fluctuating.
You know, sometimes it is like hot, sometimes it
is cold, you know, so it is not consistent. What
else? The wind.
What's wrong with the wind? Not merciful, the ones
are cruel. Yes, look at this image. You know, like
rough winds do shake the darling buds of May.
Rough winds. Here.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May. It's
an image of horror. It's an image of death.
Yeah. And it is, like, massive because, you know,
the birds... Of course, this is, you know... I
know it is, you know, it seems like a
personification, but the whole image is a metonymy
of death sweeping the lives of people. In the
Elizabethan time, they were concerned with the
idea of death. So here, yes, summer. Is what? Is
cruel. Is cruel. Is ruthless. Ruthless means very
cruel. Cruel.
Sorry.
Means ruthless.
Yes, what else? Do you have other things? Why he
wouldn't like to compare? Yes, please. The beauty
of the summer by the sunshine is not lasting
because it will be covered and damped by the
clouds. So the sun, which is part of the summer's
beauty, is not permanent. It is like sometimes it
is there, sometimes it disappears. So again, the
idea of consistency is absent. What else?
So someone is
liable to decay. Someone is liable to decay, is
liable to death. Again, all these ideas are
repeated, but every time we have a fresh image.
But it seems like there is a problem here. Don't
you think like when somebody is having like all
these forces of death, and he's concerned about
the beauty of his friend, so he should be looking
for an alternative. You see? I mean, it's a
dilemma. You know what's been a dilemma? It's a
problem, you know? And Shakespeare should find out
a way out of this dilemma, like to, let's say, to
keep the beauty of his friend. Because, you know,
he thinks that his, the beauty of his friend was
different and it should be preserved also in a
different way. It is not like The Beauty of
Summer. I think, you know, this poem is, we might
admire the poet for his sincerity. You know, this
is like a very sincere emotion from a friend to a
friend. Okay, let's look at the poem. And I think
you read it aloud at home. Now, shall I compare
thee to a summer's day? Like, this is a question.
What kind of question it is? It is a rhetorical
question. Now, okay, it's a rhetorical question,
but what are the implications of the rhetorical
questions? When he says, shall I compare thee to a
summer's day? Okay, there is nowhere to compare.
Yes. Shakespeare is not sure to compare the summer
day with the beauty of his friend. Yeah, he's not
sure to compare because he thinks that the beauty
of his friend is more consistent. Yes, Anna? He's
maybe confused or in a dilemma, like you said,
that if he had the right to compare his friend to
the summer's day. So yes, I like this, Anna,
because it seems like he was in the mood of
reflection, and he was a little bit you know,
confused, you know, about, like, the best way to,
you know, immortalize his friend. So he started by
a reflective mood and saying, shall I compare thee
to a summer's day? And then suddenly he realized,
like, nah. No, I'm not going to do that. Why?
Because thou are more lovely and more temperate.
So he's now he started contrasting. The tricky
thing is like in refusing to compare, he started
to contrast, to show how, you know, they are, you
know, the beauty of summer and the beauty of his
friend, how they are discrepant. You know what's
discrepant? Different. Let me write the word
discrepant.
Describant.
Oh, okay.
Okay.
Yeah.
Discrepant, as you see, something different. Is it
clear? Okay. Discrepant means something different.
Okay. Okay, it's clear.
Okay, I don't care. Yes, discrepant means
different. Okay, in what way? In what way it is
discrepant?
It is, no, they are more lovely and more
temperate. It is like temperate. It is balanced.
So the idea of balance, we saw the idea of
balance, if you remember in Spencer, we saw the
idea of balance in Sydney. So the idea of balance
was something valuable in the Elizabethan time. So
to be balanced was something, you know, good.
Balance, you know? Okay, now let's go back to the
poem.
So rough winds do shake the darling. Now he's
going to justify why he wouldn't compare. He says,
rough winds do shake the darling buds of May.
Rough winds. Of course, it's a personification
here. But if you look at it again, rough winds do
shake the darling buds of May. It's a very
frightening image. And we said, yes. that the
rough wind will destroy everything in the summer
season. That will destroy the buds of May. So
summer will be changed, summer will be destroyed,
but his friend beauty will stay forever. Yeah, but
like here, he says rough winds in summer because
in England summer It's not like our summer stable.
It is fluctuating, as we said. So usually, it is
very stormy in summer. And what happens to the
bare jawning, to the newly budding buds? Those
innocent, those soft buds are fragile. They can be
easily shaken off. Look here, the disparity. Look,
the disparity between, like in power, between
those innocent buds and like those rough winds. Of
course, the rough winds might be a metonymy for
death itself, the forces of death. And the buds is
a metonymy of what? People. People. People. You
know? Very, you know, reflective image and very
frightening at the same time. And summer's lease,
again here, he's adding another reason why he
wouldn't compare. And summer's lease has all too
short a date. What does it mean lease? Of course
lease here, it's like a vacation, but he means
time. Summer's time has too short a date. So what
does he mean? Summer is too short. And in England,
summer is like only two months. Summer and spring
are conflated together, and it's only like two
months.
People get excited, but suddenly it disappears.
And here, as you see, one of the reasons or
another reasons why he wouldn't, it is the brevity
of summer. And what is brief also to the
Elizabethan was not valuable. What is brief was
not valuable.
And summers leave her all too short a date. Again,
he's adding more reasons. Sometime Too hot, the
eye of heaven shines. Look, Shakespeare is playing
with sometime. Sometime, you know? You know, a
certain time. Too hot, and sometimes, you know, we
know that sometimes it's an adverb of frequency.
You know what I mean, adverbs of frequency? What
is an adverb of frequency?
What is an adverb of frequency? Could you just
tell me what are the adverbs of frequency? Yes.
Like always?
Can you just like arrange them by order? Which is
more like frequent? Usually?
No, always usually? Often? Sometimes? No, we have
between them, we have repeatedly, occasionally,
and then rarely and you know, so repeatedly.
Frequently, sorry.
Okay, okay Khaled, don't worry.
Repeatedly.
Okay. Do not respond, leave me alone.
I don't know what happened.
Okay, and so on. These are adverbs of frequency.
Repeatedly, hardly, okay, you know? So when he
says sometimes, it means like, This has to do with
what? Fluctuation. This has to do with, you know,
changeability. Like the beauty of summer is not
stable, is not fixed. So what is not stable, what
is not brief, what is, you know, is not valued in
the lesbian time. And oven, you know, sometimes
too hot, too hot, the eye of heaven shines. and
often his old complexion dimmed. So he's talking
about the sun. What kind of figure of speech do
you have here?
Yeah, the eye of heaven, you know, here, it's a
metaphor. But culturally,
when you think of the sun as an eye of heaven, I
know it's a metaphor, What does this mean to us or
to English people? Do you think we might share the
same cultural connotation or? Yeah, because, yes.
Yes, I know, but like here, the sun, I mean, the
eye of heaven, the sun. You think, you know, here,
they value the sun very much. Why? Because in
England, The sun is always dim. It doesn't appear
a lot. So they say the eye of heaven sometimes,
sometimes too hot, the eye of heaven shines. And
often his old complexion dimmed. So the idea of
changeability is there. The idea of brevity is
there. And every fair from fair, I see, and every
fair, and every fair from fair sometimes declines.
How should we read this line? How should we read
this line? I know, but how should we read it? And
every fair from fair sometimes declines like this?
Sadly? Yes, how would you read it? I want somebody
to come here and to read it. Do you have the
nerves to come here? Let's see. Who has the nerves
to come here and to read this line? And every fair
from fair sometime declines, yes? No, no, I want
like you to come and say, to read this, yes? I say
who has the courage? Who has the nerves? Okay, I
read it like differently and you vote for which
one.
And every fur from fur sometimes declines. No.
Okay. And every fur from fur sometimes declines.
So why not? Why not? You think there is sadness?
And every fur from fur sometimes declines. Is it
like this? Okay. I don't think he's sad about
summer. It's like... No, he's here when he say,
and every fair from fair sometime declines. But
the eternal beauty of his friend will never fade.
So he's like comparing that his friend will not
fade. So he's not sad about this. He's happy about
that things will... So it should be like, and
every fair from fair sometime declines? I don't
think so, because here he's in a mood of
reflection because this is a frightening thing. I
don't think he's relaxed. This is very
disconcerting. This is very worrying. So it should
be, and every fear from fear sometimes declines.
Very, you know, he's meditating. He's meditating.
And look at the alliteration. And every fair from
fair sometime declines. Very disgusting, very
frightening. I think, you know, you can translate
this into Arabic. Anybody can translate into
Arabic, like this line, yes? Okay. Can you improve
that translation? Yes? I like, wa kullu jamal ila
zawal. It's very musical. Wa kullu jamalin ila
zawal. You know? Yes, it should be like this. And
every fur from fur sometime declines.
How? Shakespeare is telling us by chance or
nature's changing course untrimmed.
By chance. Who's a chance? Chance. Yes. Fate. It
is a medieval image of a blind woman sitting
behind a wheel and turning the wheel. So it is not
sure where your place, it is something random,
chance. So chance means like things are
unpredictable, you don't know for sure what will
happen to you. So chance is like very frightening
thing, or nature's changing course untrimmed. So
the course of nature, this is a metonymy of
natural disasters. Natural disasters are
untrimmed. You know what's been trimmed? When
things, like when you go and like when we go and
trim our hair or our, like we trim, we make it
equal. So when things are untrimmed, It means some
of them are large, small, so they are unequal. So
what he wants to say that the disasters, the
natural disasters are unpredictable and they are
not similar in size. So some disaster are
horrifying like tsunamis, earthquakes. All these
are untrimmed, natural disasters or catastrophes.
Now, in this stanza, Shakespeare, in front of all
those meditative images, he said, but thy eternal
summer shall not fade. Yeah, but thy eternal
summer. Look here. The summer, you know, the
beauty of his friend is becoming summer itself.
Summer. He started by, you know, comparing the
beauty, but like, the beauty of his friend is
becoming a different summer. But thy eternal
summer. Why? Look here, thy eternal. So this is
very assertive mood. but thy eternal summer shall
not fade. Do you think, you know, when we read
this, how should we read it? Thy eternal, but thy
eternal summer shall not fade? It should have a
strong. Why? Because he's confident. He's
pledging. You know what it means, pledging? To
pledge. To pledge. To vow. He's vowing. So it
should be like, yeah, I want you to help me
reading it. Come on. But thy, but thy eternal
summer shall not fade. But thy, yes? But thy
eternal summer shall not fade. Is it like this? Or
stronger. But thy eternal summer shall not fade.
nor lose possession of that fair thou owest. You
know? So your beauty, your eternal summer will
never fade. So summer is compared to a plant, look
at this metaphor, which will never fade. Why it is
eternal? Because it will never fade. Why will it
never fade? Because it is eternal. Okay, because
it is eternal. But why it is eternal is the other
question, and I think the answer will be revealed
at the end of the poem. But thy eternal summer
shall not fade, nor lose position of that fair
thou owest, thou you have. Nor shall death brag
that wondrous is its shape. Nor death, nor shall
death. Death, you know, in the Mesopotamian time
was very frightening. And Shakespeare here is
using a biblical image. Nor shall death brag that
wondrous in his shade. Because death, according to
the Bible, death will be conceited. Look at them,
I inflicted all of them dead. Shakespeare imagined
that and he was terrified.
No, no, no, death shall never brag. What's mean
brag? Like to feel proud, to boast, look at me, to
be arrogant, bragging. Is it good to brag? No? So
don't brag next time. But you can say, okay, I am
the most brilliant student. You can brag. Not for
a long time. Nor shall death brag. Look here, nor,
nor. Because he's vowing. Shakespeare here is
asserting. But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
nor lose position of that fair thou ow'st, nor
shall death brag that wonders in his shape. Where
in eternal lines
to time thou grow'st. He's explaining how. You are
going to live to grow in my poultry. Look here,
he's using a metaphor which we call grafting
metaphor. You know what's mean grafting? What is
grafting?
To graft something,
like farmers, if they want to add, to graft, to
connect two types of plants, they might graft it
and do it together. This is grafting. You have
here one branch and then they add another stem and
this is grafting. So here, this newly grafted will
sprout, will go large. Why? Because it will take
here. So here, the image that this summer, of his
friend will grow. Why? Because it is going to be
grafted in his poetry. That's why we call this is
a grafting metaphor. When in eternal lines to time
that growest. And the eternal lines, it's a
metonymy of his poetry. Thank you. It's a metonymy
of his poetry. So long. Now this is the couplet.
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, so
long live this and this gives life to thee. You
see? It's the conclusion. Do you believe
Shakespeare? Why? Shakespeare here is very
rational. Because he thinks that the beauty of his
friend will be remembered, eternalized, as long as
his poetry, as long as people do exist on this
earth. You see what I mean? So I think Shakespeare
here, is he exaggerating? He's confident. Why?
Because he thinks He thinks that his poetry will
be read. He was confident of his artistic skill.
He thought that people would continue reading. And
here Shakespeare is being read, reproduced. His
plays are reproduced every year. Now it's been for
more than 500 years, and England and Shakespeare
are conflated together. So Shakespeare was
confident that his poetry will be read, and when
it will be read, his friend. Now we kept asking,
who is this friend? You know? Why? And, you know,
so this is how he immortalized. But look here.
Yes, lucky friend. So long as men can breathe, as
long as breathe or eyes can see. So he's limiting
his, you know, hopes for immortality Like, only to
the life on this earth. So he was more rational
and less ambitious than, you know, Spencer, if you
remember. So long live this, and this gives life
to thee. See?
So here in the couplet, he's giving his final
solution. Like, yes, my poetry will eternize you.
So we discover then that the poem is about what?
So after reading the poem and after analyzing it,
it's about what? It's about... Yeah, it could be
about friendship. It could be about beauty. But,
you know, like at the end of the day, you
understand that Shakespeare here, you know, is
like... trying to immortalize his, you know, the
beauty of his friends through his poetry. But I
think if we look at it narrowly, Shakespeare is
cherishing his poetry, and he thinks that his
poetry is, you know, very artistic, and people
will be reading it, you know, as long as they...
Why? Because it is poetry in a full sense. Now, I
think, you know, we explored the poem, but we have
not explored it at all. You have something to
film, you know? This poem, you have to look at,
you know, the rhyme and the rhythm. It's a
Shakespearean sonnet made of three quatrains and a
couplet. Now, I want you, like, to look at it and
to see what he's doing in each quatrain and how
he's developing the argument. You know? In the
first quatrain, what is he doing? And in the
second quatrain, is he repeating the same idea? Is
he repeating himself in the third quatrain? And
then in the couplet? Okay? So this is what you
have to look at. You have to look at also the
rhythm itself. You see? The rhyme, okay. It's a
sonnet. The rhythm and the rhyme. And try it
like... to write a paragraph, just a small
paragraph analyzing, you know, like the theme of
this poem. This is like could be as a homework, a
small paragraph. And next time we are reading
another poem for Shakespeare, and we might also
like compare and contrast both of them. Do you
have any question? Okay, no questions? Thank you.