Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day: WBCHSE Class 12 English
Get notes, solutions, summary, textual questions and answers, extras, MCQs, and pdf of the poem Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? by William Shakespeare which is part of (West Bengal Board) WBCHSE Class 12 English syllabus. However, the notes should only be treated for references and changes should be made according to the needs of the students.
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Short/very short questions and answers
1. In the opening line “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”, what does the speaker propose doing?
Answer: In the opening line, the speaker proposes comparing the beloved to a summer’s day.
2. What comparisons are drawn between the beloved and summer?
Answer: The speaker says the beloved is more lovely and temperate than a summer’s day. He also describes summer as being shaken by rough winds, and having too brief of a duration.
3. Identify and explain the metaphor “Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines”.
Answer: “The eye of heaven” is a metaphor for the sun. The speaker is saying the sun often shines with an intensity that is too hot.
4. According to the poem, what causes summer’s beauty to fade.
Answer: The poem suggests summer’s beauty fades because its duration is too short. Also, the sun’s heat and the dimming of its “gold complexion” by clouds causes summer’s beauty to decline.
5. What is meant by “And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.”
Answer: This line means that summer’s duration, or “lease,” is too brief. It’s over too quickly.
6. Explain the meaning of the line “By chance, or nature’s changing course untrimmed.”
Answer: This line means that beauty fades by chance happenings, or because of the natural course of changing seasons that can’t be altered.
7. How does the poem claim the beloved’s beauty will endure, unlike summer?
Answer: The poem claims the beloved’s beauty will remain perfect and never fade, unlike summer. It will be “eternal” and he will never “lose possession” of his beauty.
8. Identify two examples of alliteration used in the poem. What effect do they have?
Answer: “Shake the darling buds of May” and “death brag” contain alliteration. This gives a musical quality to the verse.
9. Explain the meaning of the line “Nor shall death brag thou wand’rest in his shade.”
Answer: This line means death will not be able to boast that the beloved wanders in death’s shade or under his influence. He will not fade through death.
10. What does the speaker claim will immortalize the beloved’s beauty?
Answer: The speaker says his poem will immortalize the beloved’s beauty as long as humans live. The poem will live on and keep the beloved’s memory alive.
11. Identify and analyze the use of personification in the poem.
Answer: Summer and death are personified. Summer is given the human actions of shaking, shining, and having its complexion dimmed. Death is able to “brag” that the beloved is under his shade. This enlivens the imagery.
12. Explain the meaning of the couplet “So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.”
Answer: As long as humankind survives, the poem will also endure, keeping alive the memory and beauty of the beloved. The poem is giving life to the beloved.
13. What is the overall theme explored in this poem?
Answer: The overall theme is the immortalizing power of verse. The speaker is claiming his poem will allow the beauty of the beloved to endure forever.
14. Discuss the tone of the speaker in this Shakespearean sonnet.
Answer: The tone is romantic and admiring. The speaker is clearly enamored with the beloved, and aims to praise his beauty. There is also confidence in the speaker’s tone regarding the immortality of his verse.
15. In your view, what makes this sonnet so memorable and enduring?
Answer: The simple but beautiful imagery, accessible language, skillful use of poetic techniques like alliteration and personification, and universal theme of preserving beauty through art all contribute to making this sonnet so enduringly memorable. The praise of the beloved is also sincere and touching.
16. What does the speaker claim is one difference between the beloved and summer in the lines.
Answer: The speaker claims the beloved is more lovely and mild in temperament than summer.
17. What causes summer’s “gold complexion” to be “dimmed” according to the poem?
Answer: Clouds that come in summer cause the sun’s golden complexion to be dimmed at times.
18. Explain what the speaker means by “But thy eternal summer shall not fade”.
Answer: This means the beloved’s beauty will remain perfect and will never fade or decline, unlike the fleeting beauty of summer.
19. What does the speaker mean by “eternal lines”?
Answer: By “eternal lines” the speaker is referring to the verses of this immortal poem, which will preserve the beloved’s memory forever.
Analytical/descriptive/long questions and answers
1. How does Shakespeare portray summer in the poem? Discuss the imagery and descriptions used.
Answer: Shakespeare uses vivid imagery that highlights the imperfections of summer to portray it in a negative light. He describes “rough winds” that violently “shake” the “darling buds of May,” conjuring a scene of turbulence and destruction marring nature’s beauty. The metaphor of the sun as the blistering “eye of heaven” that shines “too hot” depicts summer heat at its most oppressive extreme. Clouds are shown dimming the radiant sun’s “gold complexion,” introducing elements of mutability and imperfection. Overall, summer is portrayed as a season of instability, given to extremes of weather that ravage the landscape and diminish its loveliness.
2. How does Shakespeare establish that the beloved is different from and superior to summer in the poem?
Answer: Shakespeare uses several techniques to differentiate the beloved from summer and prove his superiority. He directly compares the beloved as “more lovely and more temperate” than summer. While summer’s beauty fades as its “lease hath all too short a date”, the beloved’s youth will be “eternal.” Summer is portrayed as imperfect, marred by “rough winds”, dimming clouds and excess heat, whereas the beloved’s radiance is flawless. The beloved is also shown to be immortal, unaffected by the mortal forces of “nature’s changing course” and even “death” which diminish all things seasonal. Additionally, summer is depicted as mutable, its “gold complexion” altered from bright to dim, while the beloved’s beauty remains constant and unassailable.
3. Analyze how the poet develops the comparison between the beloved and summer. What does this reveal about the speaker’s attitude?
Answer: The poet contrasts summer as imperfect and fleeting to the beloved’s enduring perfection. Saying the beloved is “more lovely and more temperate” than summer reveals the speaker’s deeply adoring attitude. The beloved is exalted as superior to the natural world at its height. The comparison also suggests summer’s beauty, though bountiful, cannot rival that of the transcendent beloved. The speaker’s reverent tone indicates he worships the beloved beyond the seasonal beauty of nature. His attitudes revealed are those of wonder, praise, and devotion.
4. Discuss the metaphor used for the sun in line 5 (“Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines”). What meaning does this metaphorical imagery add?
Answer: By describing the sun as the “eye of heaven,” Shakespeare casts it as the omniscient eye of a god gazing down upon the earth. This mythologizes the sun, lending cosmic significance to its powers. It also emphasizes the scorching heat of summer sun at its most unrelenting, with the eye shining down too “hot.” This vivid metaphor adds layers of meaning – the sun is not just a celestial body but a divine overseer whose blistering gaze bears down, almost punitively, on the landscape. The personification hints at supernatural forces governing summer’s extremes.
5. Discuss the use and effect of personification in the poem. How does giving human traits to summer and death shape the meaning?
Answer: Personifying summer and death adds drama, vivacity, and emotional weight to these abstract concepts. Summer being able to “shake” flowers implies an aggressive, willful entity of power. Death “bragging” conjures up an arrogant, boastful character. These devices make summer’s flaws and death’s threats more vivid, lively, and sinister. Personification allows Shakespeare to dramatize the dangers summer and mortality pose to beauty and life within a conceit of characters with opposing motivations.
6. Discuss the meaning of the final couplet (lines 13-14). How does this encapsulate the theme and message of the poem?
Answer: The closing couplet asserts the beloved’s beauty and memory will be preserved eternally through the “eternal lines” of the poet’s writing. It neatly summarizes the theme that art can triumph over mortal decay. The speaker promises his verse will allow the beloved to live forever, just as the poem itself has survived centuries. The couplet provides an uplifting, concise resolution to the tension between impermanence and immortality explored throughout the sonnet.
7. Analyze how the speaker’s tone and mood toward the beloved are conveyed through word choice and poetic techniques.
Answer: The speaker’s adoring, reverent tone emerges through laudatory descriptors like “lovely,” vivid admiring imagery, and use of comparison to elevate the beloved. His awe-struck mood is conveyed through sublime metaphors like “eye of heaven” and grand claims of eternal life. Rapturous words, religious metaphors, and the promise of defying mortal limits reveal a worshipful, exalted state of mind.
Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs)
1. What does the speaker propose doing in the first line of the poem?
A. Praising the beloved B. Describing a summer day C. Comparing the beloved to a summer’s day D. Criticizing the flaws of summer
Answer: C. Comparing the beloved to a summer’s day
2. What does the speaker say makes the beloved different from a summer’s day?
A. The beloved is more temperate B. The beloved is less windy C. The beloved is more lovely D. Both A and C
Answer: D. Both A and C
3. What causes summer’s “gold complexion” to be “dimmed” according to the poem?
A. The rough winds B. Its lease being too short C. The eye of heaven shining too hot D. Clouds
Answer: D. Clouds
4. What does the speaker say happens to “every fair” thing in line 7?
A. It declines B. It fades C. It is trimmed D. It is eternal
Answer: A. It declines
5. Which line states that the beloved’s beauty will remain perfect and never fade?
A. “Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May” B. “But thy eternal summer shall not fade” C. “When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st” D. “So long as men can breathe or eyes can see”
Answer: B. “But thy eternal summer shall not fade”
6. What does the speaker claim will make the beloved’s beauty eternal?
A. Rhyme B. Nature C. This poem D. Summer
Answer: C. This poem
7. Which set of lines contains an example of alliteration?
A. “Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May” B. “But thy eternal summer shall not fade” C. “When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st” D. “So long lives this, and this gives life to thee”
Answer: A. “Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May”
8. What does the speaker compare the sun to?
A. Gold B. An eye C. Heaven D. Summer
Answer: B. An eye
9. What causes the summer’s lease to be “too short” according to the poem?
A. The rough winds B. The eye of heaven shining too hot C. It’s natural duration D. Death bragging
Answer: C. It’s natural duration
10. What does the speaker claim the poem will do for the beloved?
A. Praise him B. Preserve him C. Compare him to summer D. Describe him
Answer: B. Preserve him
11. What does “untrimmed” mean as used in line 8?
A. Uncut B. Disordered C. Unchanged D. Unending
Answer: C. Unchanged
12. What literary device is used in the line “Nor shall death brag thou wand’rest in his shade”?
A. Personification B. Alliteration C. Metaphor D. Simile
Answer: A. Personification
13. What does the speaker say the poem will last as long as?
A. Summer B. Death C. Heaven D. Men breathe and eyes see
Answer: D. Men breathe and eyes see
14. What Temporarily dimmed the sun’s complexion?
A. Heat B. Winds C. Clouds D. Nature
Answer: C. Clouds
15. What shakes the ‘darling buds of May’?
A. Heat B. Winds C. Clouds D. Untrimmed nature
Answer: B. Winds
16. How does the poet plan to immortalize the youth’s beauty?
A. Through rhyme B. Through metaphor C. Through verse D. Through summer
Answer: C. Through verse
17. What does the speaker compare his beloved to?
A. A season B. A flower C. The sun D. Eyes that see
Answer: A. A season
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