Stylistic analysis of a shakespearean sonnet
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Transcript of Stylistic analysis of a shakespearean sonnet
Stylistic Approach In the words of Halliday: We can define
linguistic stylistics as the description of literary texts by methods derived from general linguistic theory, using the categories of the description of language as a whole.
Sonnet?
o Two types of Sonnet : Petrarchan and Shakespearean.
o A sonnet is a 14 line lyric poem that conforms to strict patterns of rhythm and rhyme.
o Written in Iambic Pentameter.
Shakespearean and Petrarchan Sonnet
Scansion
o What is it?
o What are Structural Devices and Literary Devices?
Structure vs Literary Devices Structural Elements Literary Devices Rhythm
Meter
Rhyme
Similes and Metaphors
Imagery Alliteration Symbolism Parallelism Personification
Sonnet 18 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,And summer's lease hath all too short a date: Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,And often is his gold complexion dimm'd; And every fair from fair sometime declines,By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimm'd;But thy eternal summer shall not fadeNor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st; So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
Common Feet used in Poetry(~) denotes unstressed and (/) denotes stressed
Iamb (~/) unstressed followed by stressed syllable
Anapest (~~/) two unstressed followed by stressed syllable
Trochee (/~) stressed followed by unstressed syllable
Dactyl (/~~) stressed followed by two unstressed syllable
Spondee (//) two stressed back to back syllable Pyrrhic (~~) two unstressed back to back
syllable
Step 1 : Rhyme scheme is :- ABAB CDCD EFEF GG 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,And summer's lease hath all too short a date: Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,And often is his gold complexion dimm'd; And every fair from fair sometime declines,By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimm'd;But thy eternal summer shall not fadeNor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st; So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,So long lives this, and this gives life to thee
Step 2: Determine Rhythmstressed (x) and unstressed (~) syllables
Shall I / com PARE/ thee TO / a SUM / mer's DAY? ~ x ~ x ~ x ~ x ~ x
Thou ART / more LOVE / ly AND / more TEM / per ATE
~ x ~ x ~ x ~ x ~ x
It follows an IAMBIC (~x) pattern.
Step 3: Meter Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? ʃəl aɪ/ kəmˈ peə/ ði : tə/ ə sʌ/məz deɪ/
Thou art more lovely and more temperate: ðaʊ ɑ:/t mɔ: ˈlʌ/vlɪ ə/nd mɔ: ˈte/mpərət/
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, rʌf wɪ/ndz dʊ ʃeɪ/k ðə ˈdɑ:/lɪŋ bʌ/dz əv
meɪ/
And summer's lease hath all too short a dateənd sʌ/məz li:/s hæθ ɔ:/l tu: ʃɔ:/t ə deɪt/
1 syllable has 1 vowel Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, sʌmtaɪ/m tu: hɒ/t ðɪ aɪ/ əv ˈhe/vn ʃaɪnz
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd; ənd ˈɒ/fn ɪz/ hɪz gəʊ/ld kəmˈ plekʃ/n dɪmd
And every fair from fair sometime declines, ənd ˈevrɪ/ feə frə/m feə sʌ/mtaɪm dɪ/ˈklaɪnz
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd; baɪ ʧɑ:/ns ɔ: neɪ/ʧez ʧeɪ/ndʒɪŋ kɔ:/s ənˈtrɪmd
1 feet has 2 syllables But thy eternal summer shall not fade bʌt ðaɪ/ ɪˈtɜ:/nəl sʌ/mə ʃə/l nɒt feɪd/
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest; nɔ: lu:/z pɒze/ʃn əv ðæ/t feə ðaʊ/ əʊəst
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade, nɔ: ʃəl/ deθ bræ/g ðaʊ ˈwɒ/ndəzt ɪ/n
hɪz ʃeɪd
When in eternal lines to time thou growest: wen ɪ/n ɪˈtɜ:/nəl laɪ/nz tə taɪ/m ðaʊ grəʊəst
5 feet is a Penta So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, səʊ lɒ/ŋ əz me/n kæn bri:/ð ɔ: aɪ/z kæn
si:
So long lives this and this gives life to thee. səʊ lɒ/ŋ lɪvz ðɪ/s ən ðɪ/s gɪvz laɪ/f tə ði:
It has 5 feet per line i.e Pentameter.
The poem is in IAMBIC PENTAMETER
MeaningShall I compare thee to a summer's day?
This question is flattering in itself as a summer’s day is often associated
with beauty.
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Shakespeare, however, explains that his love’s beauty exceeds that of the
summer and does not have its tendency towards unpleasant
extremes:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
It should be noted that at the time the sonnet was written, England had not yet adopted the Gregorian calendar and May was considered a summer month. In the above quote, Shakespeare describes the fragility and short duration of summer’s
beauty. The use of the word ‘lease’ reminds us of the fact that everything
beautiful remains so for a limited time only and after a while its beauty will be forcibly
taken away.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,And often is his gold complexion dimmed,
Shakespeare states that the sun, which he personifies and refers to as ‘the eye of
heaven’, can be too hot or blocked from view by the clouds unlike his ‘more
temperate’ love.
And every fair from fair sometime declines,By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed:
The repetition of the word ‘fair’ highlights the fact that this fate is inescapable for
everything that possesses beauty.
“But thy eternal summer shall not fade,Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,”
Suddenly (though it was foreshadowed a bit in line 8), the tone and direction of the poem
changes dramatically. Moving on from bashing summer and the limitations inherent in nature, the speaker pronounces that the beloved he’s speaking to isn’t subject to all
of these rules he’s laid out.
“Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shadeWhen in eternal lines to time thou grow’st”
Shakespeare, however, states that his love will not lose their beauty to death or time but will be preserved through his poetry:
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
(As long as there are humans alive on this planet Your life and beauty will live
on through this sonnet)Shakespeare’s self-assured claim makes it possible to argue that the purpose of
the poem was not actually to pay a beloved person a compliment but rather
to praise oneself for poetic skill.
Figure of SpeechMetaphor:
“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”
"Thou art more lovely and more temperate”
“But thy eternal summer shall not fade”
Figure of SpeechSymbolism:• “The darling buds of May”
– the beautiful, much loved buds of the early summer
• “The eye of heaven” – Sun
Figure of SpeechPersonification:“Rough winds do shake the darling buds
of May”“Sometime too hot the eye of heaven
shines““Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in
his shade”
Figure of SpeechAnaphora:
“So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.”
Interlink b/w FORM and CONTENT
Rhetoric tradition of Italian sonnet. The three quatrain plus couplet form of Shakespeare’s sonnets also allow the speaker to use a dominant metaphor or image for each quatrain as he leads to his resolution in the concluding couplet.