ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: The first line tells us that the speaker is comparing the Fair Youth to a summer’s day, which is a beautiful thing! But the speaker tells us that the Fair Youth is actually “More lovely and more temperate” than a summer’s day.

Detailed explanation-2: -In the sonnet, the speaker asks whether he should compare the Fair Youth to a summer’s day, but notes that he has qualities that surpass a summer’s day. He also notes the qualities of a summer day are subject to change and will eventually diminish.

Detailed explanation-3: -Answer: Shakespeare in his sonnet 18 draws some arresting comparison between his friend and a summers day. He feels that his friend is ‘more lovely and more temperate’ as sometimes strong summer winds threaten those new flower buds that pop up in the month of May .

Detailed explanation-4: -In “Sonnet 18, ” the speaker considers comparing the young man to the sun, but rejects the comparison, noting that the sun’s beauty is often dimmed by clouds. (In other sonnets, the speaker does compare the young man to the sun-precisely because the sun’s beauty is variable.

Detailed explanation-5: -The “Fair Youth” is the unnamed young man addressed by the devoted poet in the greatest sequence of the sonnets (1–126). The young man is handsome, self-centred, universally admired and much sought after. The sequence begins with the poet urging the young man to marry and father children (sonnets 1–17).