This is a very helpful post on Sonnet 18 Shall I compare thee long question answer class 12. This will surely help the students to have a good preparation for the class 12 final examination. Sonnet 18 is a typical poem written by William Shakespeare and this is an extraordinary presentation of long questions answers with suggestion for the examination.
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LONG QUESTIONS ANSWERS FROM STRONG ROOTS
SONNET 18 SHALL I COMPARE THEE LONG QUESTION ANSWER
1.How does William Shakespeare immortalize and glorify the beauty of his dear friend? //or// Write about the substance of the poem “sonnet-18”? //or// Bring out the central theme of the poem?
ANSWER; William Shakespeare’s “sonnet-18, Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day” is the poet’s tribute to his young and beautiful friend who is the perfect embodiment of the platonic conception of archetypal beauty. The poem begins with an interrogation and the poet refuses to compare the beauty of his friend to that of a summer’s day. The poet’s beloved has possessed more lovely and ‘temperate’ nature than summer. The beauty of summer is ephemeral and the beautiful buds representing the beauty of summer are sometime decayed by the destructive winds. The sun shines either too hot or sometimes becomes overclouded.
Decadence is the law of nature and beautiful objects cannot escape the passage of time. But to immortalize the beauty of his friend (W.H), he takes the help of poetry and in the eternal lines the ‘eternal summer’ of his friend will be preserved. Time and death will not fade the beauty of the poet’s friend as his sonnet will immortalize it. ‘So long as men can breathe or eyes can see’, the beauty of his friend will remain alive.
SONNET 18 LONG QUESTION ANSWER
2.How does William Shakespeare compare his friend’s beauty to that of the summer’s day?//Why does the poet say that it is inappropriate to compare his friend to a summer’s day?
ANSWER; William Shakespeare’s “sonnet-18, Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day” is the poet’s tribute to his young and beautiful friend who is the perfect embodiment of the platonic conception of archetypal beauty. The poet has immortalised the beauty of his friend, W.H, in the eternal lines of his poetry . The poet wishes to compare his friend’s beauty to a summer’s day: but he discovers his friend’s superiority. He feels that his friend is more beautiful and tempered than the day of summer season.
In contrast to the fair youth’s immortal beauty, the warmth of summer is transitory. Summer has only a temporary and too brief tenancy on nature. Rough winds destroy ‘the darling buds of may’. This image of spoiled blossom hints at the early death or young love blighted.. Again the sun is sometime too hot and bright and sometimes it’s glow is blurred by the thick patches of clouds. But the poet avows that loveliness and sobriety of his friend are permanent.
SONNET 18 LONG QUESTION
3.what is a sonnet? What type of sonnet is “sonnet-18”? State the arguments in the octave and sestet?
ANSWER; Sonnet is a poem of fourteen lines with a particular rhyme scheme.
Shakespeare’s ‘sonnet-18’ is a Shakespearean sonnet which has three quatrains followed by one concluding couplet.
William Shakespeare has given “sonnet-18” a form of the English sonnet which possesses an octave and a sestet. The octave having two quatrains deals with the poet’s fruitless effort of making a comparison between the beauty of his friend and a day of summer. The poet wishes to compare his friend’s beauty to a summer’s day, but he discovers his friend’s superiority. He feels that his friend is more beautiful and tempered than the day of summer season. In contrast to the fair youth’s immortal beauty, the wormth of summer is transitory. Summer has only a temporary and too brief tenancy on nature. Rough winds destroy ‘the darling buds of may’. This image of spoiled blossom hints at the early death or young love blighted.
Again the sun is sometime too hot and bright and sometimes it’s glow is blurred by the thick patches of clouds. But the poet avows that loveliness and sobriety of his friend are permanent. In the first quatrain of sestet, the poet bestows unmutability to his friend through his poetry, every beautiful object loses external fairness either by accidents or by natural decay inherent in them. But the beauty of the poet’s dear friend will defy death in the eternal lines of poetry. The couplet focuses the idea that his friend’s beauty will live as long as men will live in this world.
SONNET 18 LONG QUESTION ANSWER
5. How does the poet treat the theme of time and love in sonnet 18?
ANSWER. William shakespeare’s “sonnet -18” affirms the victory of love over the all devouring time and death by immortality conferred on love through the eternal lines of his sonnet. The ceaseless operation of time engulfs everything on it’s way and keeps up the mutability which is the law of nature. Summer has only a temporary and too brief tenancy on nature. Rough winds destroy ‘the darling buds of may’. This image of spoiled blossom hints at the early death or young love blighted.. Again the sun is sometime too hot and bright and sometimes it’s glow is blurred by the thick patches of clouds.
But the fairness of the poet’s ‘fair youth’ remains unchanged as death can’t lay its icy hands on him. The well knitted words forming the lines shelters his beauty and defies the assault of time. He takes the help of poetry and in the eternal lines the ‘eternal summer’ of his friend will be preserved. Time and death will not fade the beauty of the poet’s friend as his sonnet will immortalize it. ‘So long as men can breathe or eyes can see’, he beauty of his friend will remain alive. Thus the poet’s dear friend’s beauty and his love stay immortal and ceases to be “Time’s fool”.
SONNET 18 LONG QUESTION ANSWER
6.”Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines”-What does the ‘eye of heaven’ refer to? How does every fair decline from fair? How does the poet convince that his friend’s ‘eternal summer’ shall never fade?
Answer- In the poem “Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day’, the expression eye of heaven’ refers to the all important sun. The sun is the eye of the sky.
Everything loses its beauty with the passage of time. In this expression, the first fair’ means all beautiful things while the second fair’ refers to the beauty of the earth as a whole.
The summer season is short and its beauty is sometimes spoiled by the extremely hot sun, wind and clouds. But the beauty of the poet’s friend is everlasting. It will last as long as human beings exist on this earth and will read this particular poem.
SONNET 18 LONG QUESTION ANSWER
7. “Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day?”-Whom does the poet compare? What adjectives does the poet use for the person compared to a summer’s day? What are the shortcomings of a summer’s day?
Answer- In the poem “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day, the poet compares the beauty of his friend to the summer’s day.
Comparing the friend’s beauty to a summer’s day, the poet uses adjectives like ‘lovely’, ‘temperate,’rough’, ‘darling’,’eternal’.
The poet shows that he can’t compare his friend to a day of summer because a summer’s day has some shortcomings. The beauty of the summer is not permanent and destructible. The summer sun of summer is too hot and it does not appear comfortable. Besides, dark clouds often cover the sun and make it pale. Gusty winds sometimes shake the beautiful flowers of summer. Thus a summer’s day possesses some limitations.