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.