Poem analysis/ revision of Sonnet 18

Marinda Hsu

2016.05.19

English ll

Mrs. Guarino

Sonnet 18 Analysis

     Sonnet 18 is one of most famous poems within all 154 sonnets written by William Shakespeare. This poem is written in old English; therefore, many words are not what we could found easily in a normal dictionary. It is a lovely poem about his lover, how he viewed her and how she will be forever beautiful in his heart. This poem also shows how Shakespeare wanted this beauty of his lover to be immortal within his poem, which in another way, also hoping that this poem could be existing and being read as long as possible. The starting of the poem comparing his lover with summer, could mean more than just summer time but also spring, what was wanted to be present includes the warm and loveliness during both spring and summer time. Other than the lovely part about this poem, a doubt and question was given to the poem. As people have known, this poem was originally given to noble young man in between the age of 20. Also, summer was often used to describe man within the age of 30, 40 and spring used to describe youth. Therefore during the line where it writes “Darling buds of May”, some readers refers what was wanted to present should more likely be as spring than summer. Later on, other readers thought that this poem could also be a homosexual poem; Overall, different views about Sonnet 18 were given. Sonnet 18 is a poem by Shakespeare describing the beauty of his lover and his desire wanting her to keep her loveliness long living, it uses rhyme scheme and other literal devices to create this poem into a fluent poem with matching meters. 

      William Shakespeare compares her to something that is beautiful or warm, and says that she is even more precious comparing to it. For example, “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day” means shall I compare you to a summer’s day, but on the next line he wrote that she is even more lovely and constant than a summer’s day. Later on, he writes that even though by nature or by random, beautiful things could be taken away or faded, but, the beauty and youth of hers, won’t. According to this quote saying “But thy eternal summer shall not fade, nor lose possesion of that fair thou ow’st, nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade” this refers to how because he have written this poem that won’t die, and as long as this poem exists, she will live and keep her beauty forever. The meaning of  Sonnet 18 is to show his love and a heart wanting to protect his lover. He tried to compares and describes her preciousness and glamorous within this poem. His reluctant to give up his lover. Overall, this poem is describing his lover’s beauty that he wanted to keep immortal. He wanted her to be remembered and long-living, in another way of saying, in his point of view and his heart, she will stay as beautiful and as young even though time have passed and over time, she will still stay the same in her best condition.

    Some literary devices being used in Sonnet 18 are personification, meter, rhyme, metaphor, comparison and repetition. But first of all, it is a sonnet, which contains 14 lines. The rhyme scheme for Sonnet 18 is: a b a b c d c d e f e f g g, with words like day-may, temperate-date, shines-declines, dimm’d-untrimm’d, and fade to shade. All of the ending word  in each sentences have the same rhyme with the next next sentence’s last word. Moving on,  In these three lines “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate. Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May” it uses comparison to compare this person with summer, it also gives the reader different seasons’ description to describe his lover. It first asked if the lover should be compared as a summer then describing her as having more attractive characteristics. The line right after says, “summer’s lease hath all too short a date”, is saying how the summer is way too short comparing to the person’s infinite beauty. Next on, “The eye of heaven” represents the sun, and could be considered as a personification since nor do heaven or the sun have an eye. Another personification in Sonnet 18, will be in the line where he writes “Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade”, obviously death won’t physically grab someone under his shade. Next on, “And often is his gold complexion dimmed; And every fair from fair sometime declines”, these two lines tells how good things and beautiful things (fair) will fade away as time pasts or by chance, coincidence that happens. Comparing to the first few lines, starting from this line “But thy eternal summer shall not fade”, other than describing the person like summer using simile, the person is the summer, which is using metaphor rather than simile. Some repetition words Sonnet 18 has, are summer, thou, fair, and so long that repeats within the lines to create more meter, beat in the poem. In conclusion, Sonnet 18 is a beautiful poem about his lover’s long living beauty deep down he wishes and also a poem with many literal devices being used to present as a fluent, pleasant reading poem. 

Creative project:: Reading Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare

https://youtu.be/VFapMiJjRVA

Thesis

    Sonnet 18 is a poem by Shakespeare describing the beauty of his lover and his desire wanting her to keep her loveliness long living, it uses rhyme scheme and other literal devices to create it as a whole. 

Peers review

      Kevin's poem is called What is a Good Friend, it is a warm and powerful poem I've heard from his recitation. For his analysis, he did a great job on the introduction paragraph, which is the first paragraph. He relates his experiences and feelings towards the poem, which I think is a good idea to start off with. He also mentioned some lessons that are related to the poem about friendship. Moreover, he gave some explanations to why he chooses this poem and how he had this same question as the title—What is a good friend?. He also has a great hook by saying "In everyone's life", so people reading this analysis will start off trying to connect their own experiences and ideas to this poem and to Kevin's analysis. 

        The second paragraph was also well done, because he tried predict and infer to how the author wanting to present the poem by not telling his opinion about friendship as the topic, but telling it step by step later on within the poem. The analysis's organization is also good since he wrote it clear for the reader to understand by giving short explanations right after a sentence he quoted from the poem. For the third paragraph, he started to explain the structures of the poem. Overall, he fulfilled all the requirements Ms. Guarino have asked for on the blog, both the poem's meaning and structure are given in his analysis. 

       On the other hand, something that I think Kevin should improve on and do better on is for the second paragraph explaining the meaning of the poem. I think he could give some deeper meaning of the poem rather than explaining it in a easier way. Also, he could add in his own definition for friendship and what a good friend should be like to compare and contrast with the author's idea. He could tell about how he agrees to it or not. He could also add in some background informations about the poem. Another thing to be improved in this analysis will be the thesis. I could not find any specific sentence as a thesis statement, so I think it will be better to come up with a thesis statement even though it's a analysis writing. Another advice I want to give is to list out some literature devices the author have used in this poem in the starting of the paragraph about structures, so it will be easier and more clear; Moreover, this sentence could be presented as the topic sentence for the third paragraph mainly discussing about the poem's structure. Otherwise and most likely he did a great job on his analysis for the poem What is a Good Friend. 

Comedy Tonight!

Marinda Hsu

2016.05.21

English ll

Ms. Guarino

                                                                  Theater Review

         "It was the funniest thing I’ve recently seen, not even kidding”, I heard someone saying this in the hallway, and I agree. This is my favorite drama of all throughout this year; Every drama presented this year were all great, but last night, this comedy became my favorite. It is light and relaxing comparing to other dramas I’ve seen. Most of all, I felt related to some of the skits, which made me enjoyed more. I have to say that this comedy made me laugh hard and all the audiences did, too. In my opinion, these skits are realistic and humorous. Some of the skits I like the most are “After Ever After”, “John Jiang, the Latte Boy and Rebuttal”, and “Morning Meeting Gone Wrong”. 

        “After Ever After” is a really interesting comedy,, the lyrics are funny yet realistic and criticizing about problems the world is facing right now. Four princesses from Disney singing the same melody as in the movies but with a new version of lyrics. I was laughing hard but then realized what they were singing was a real problem in the society these days. Ariel the mermaid’s lyrics mentioned the pollution under the sea and also how people are cutting fish fins off for food, then leaving them harmed in the ocean to die. Eventually, I think that behind their humorous lyrics that made the audience laughed contains a deeper idea and problems the society are facing recently. 

         “John Jiang, the Latte Boy” is also an interesting singing, I like the part where John sang his rebuttal song back to Sam. I was wondering along when I was watching this part if this whole song is written and made by Cheshire Academy’s students and teacher; If it is, I am even more impressed because it sounded cute and good. I had this question because the name Sam and John fits the beat in the song well. Last but not least, the “Morning Meeting Gone Wrong” was the one I laughed the hardest, so did the people sitting around me. This is one of the best moment I would say in the show. For a second, I thought Zola was actually Ms. Minahan. How every actors have acted during this scene were real and so similar to what I’ve seen every Thursday morning. It is fascinating how students have acted out how we have seen each teachers’ speech during morning meeting. I felt extremely related to this comedy therefore enjoyed it a lot and will definitely ask my friends to go watch it. 

    Overall, this comedy was vigorous and amusing.

Sonnet 18 analysis

Marinda Hsu

2016.05.19

English ll

Mrs. Guarino

                                                                      Sonnet 18 Analysis

        Sonnet 18 is one of famous poems within all 154 sonnets written by William Shakespeare. This poem is written in old English; therefore, many words are not what we could found easily in a normal dictionary. It is a lovely poem about his lover, how he viewed her and how she will be forever beautiful in his heart. This poem also shows how Shakespeare wanted this beauty of his lover to be immortal within his poem, which in another way, also hoping that this poem could be existing and being read as long as possible. The starting of the poem comparing his lover with summer, could mean more than just summer time but also spring, what was wanted to be present includes the warm and loveliness during both spring and summer time. Other than the lovely part about this poem, a doubt and question was given to the poem. As people have known, this poem was originally given to noble young man in between the age of 20. Also, summer was often used to describe man within the age of 30, 40 and spring used to describe youth. Therefore during the line where it writes “Darling buds of May”, some readers refers what was wanted to present should more likely be spring than summer. Later on, other readers thought that this poem could also be a homosexual poem; Overall, different views about Sonnet 18 were given. 

           William Shakespeare compares her to something that is beautiful or warm, and says that she is even more precious comparing to it. For example, “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day” means shall I compare you to a summer’s day, but on the next line he wrote that she is even more lovely and constant than a summer’s day. Later on, he writes that even though by nature or by random, beautiful things could be taken away or faded, but, the beauty and youth of hers, won’t. Because as he have written this poem that won’t die, and as long as this poem exists, she will live and keep her beauty forever. Overall, this poem is describing his lover’s beauty that he wanted to keep immortal. He wanted her to be remembered and long-living, in another way of saying, in his point of view and his heart, she will stay as beautiful and as young even though time have passed and over time, she will still stay the same in her best condition.

             Some literary devices being used in Sonnet 18 are personification, meter, rhyme, metaphor, comparison and repetition. But first of all, it is a sonnet, which contains 14 lines. The rhyme scheme for Sonnet 18 is: a b a b c d c d e f e f g g. In these three lines “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate. Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May” it uses comparison to compare this person with summer, it also gives the reader different seasons’ description. The line right after says, “summer’s lease hath all too short a date”, comparing how the summer is way too short comparing to the person’s beauty. Next on, “The eye of heaven” represents the sun and could be considered as a personification since nor do heaven or the sun have an eye. Another personification in Sonnet 18, will be in the line where he writes “Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade”, obviously death won’t physically grab someone under his shade. Next on, “And often is his gold complexion dimmed; And every fair from fair sometime declines”, these two lines tells how good things and beautiful things (fair) will fade away as time past or by chances. Comparing to the first few lines, starting from this line “But thy eternal summer shall not fade”, other than describing the person like summer using simile, the person is the summer, by using metaphor rather than simile. Some repetition words Sonnet 18 has, are summer, thou, fair, and so long that repeats within the lines. 

    

    

Poem recitation

https://youtu.be/hZ6LR1rTDLI