Hi, I'm Rebecca Balcarcel. Let's take a look at Sonnet 18. This is Shakespeare's famous, "Shall I Compare Thee to Summer's Day?" The first thing we need to say is that this poem is directed to man. In fact he's called the "young man." And whether this means Shakespeare's gay, uh, we really don't know. Does it mean he's bisexual? We don't know. Is he writing for a woman, on- you know, on a woman's behalf to the man? We don't know. So that's just a question that has to remain open. But we do know that this poem is addressed to a man. Draw your own conclusions. So it starts out, "Shall I compare thee to a Summer's Day?" Now before we go any further, I need to tell you that this references a common phrase -- like a cliche, a saying -- that was common in the Renaissance, and let me read what that is. It was, "As good as one shall see in a summer's day," which means as good as it gets, you know, as good as the very best. "As good as one shall see in a summer's day." So when Shakespeare's audience heard this, they would naturally be thinking of that phrase, like, "Oh, this is echoing that saying." So it would be kind of familiar to them. Alright, now this video's going to be pretty long, because Shakespeare packs so much into this poem, and it's going to take us a while to work through the whole thing. I'll just read two lines at a time, and try to, you know, unfold as much as I can. "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Though are more lovely and more temperate." So he starts out by saying, "Well, should I compare you to a summer's day?" which is normally something people think of as very good, very pleasant. And he says, "Oh, but no, you're more lovely than that, and you're more temperate." I want to highlight this word "temperate." It means more, um, moderated. Uh, tempus refers to time. Tempus is the latin for time. So, the- the- the beloved is more measured and more moderated than the usual summer day, which might be kind of reckless and wild. Steady would be another association with temperate. Steady. It's like the word "tempo," where you've got a nice regular rhythm going. The beloved is more like this than like a summer's day. Now there's another reason why this word "temperate" is appropriate appearing here in line two. And that is that because the word is related to the word "time," we can tell already that this poem's theme will be all about time, time going by, whether things endure or don't endure. That's a theme throughout the poem. Okay, so thou art more lovely and more temperate. "Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, and Summer's lease hath all to short a date." So here's some more reasons why you're better than a summer's day, my love. Uh, rough winds come along and shake the buds on the trees or bushes, and Summer's lease is short. That means that, uh, the summer has an expiration date. The lease has all too short a date, a date after which it ends. So summer is limited in how long it lasts. And this is a drawback. Next two lines: "Sometime, too hot the eye of heaven shines, and often is his gold complexion dimmed." Okay, so sometimes the sun, the eye of heaven is the sun, it's too hot. And at other times its complexion is dimmed. So the golden light of the sun is dimmed, and the gold complexion, either by clouds or by the setting of the sun every day. So again we have this "time is passing" kind of thing. The sun, I can't compare you to that because, for one, it's too hot, and for another, it sets and it goes away, and it gets dim. "And every fair from fair sometime declines, by chance, or nature's changing course, untrimmed;" I think these are the two hardest lines in the poem. Uh, "every fair from fair sometime declines." So every beauty (that fair means to be beautiful, right?) um, but all of that beauty will decline, ultimately. So fair from some perfect height of beauty will decline to a lesser beauty, and fair from fair declines. So there's a, you know, a falling off of beauty over time. Okay next two lines: "By-" Oh, I'm sorry! "...by chance, or nature's changing course, untrimmed;" I forgot that one. Uh, so how is this declining happening? It's either happening by chance, that just from events by chance, that your beauty will be reduced, and maybe, you know, literally with an accident or disease or something. But what is this untrimmed thing? Nature's changing course is going to untrim you. Well, if you've ever decorated a Christmas tree, then you know that we use the word "trim" to refer to decorating. So you trim the tree, you ornament the tree, you decorate the tree. So nature is going to untrim beauty. That means that all of us, as we go through time, just the normal course of nature, is going to unornament us. You know, untrim us. We're going to be less decorated and less pretty, less beautiful, as nature's course goes along. And nature's course also is changing, so it's not steady and reliable. We have an unpredectibility to nature, and that is, you know, all the events of our lives are going to untrim us and make us less physically beautiful anyway. Okay, now the next two lines: "But..." Now, all up to now we've been listing all the reasons why my beloved is not like a summer's day. She's- or he is better than a summer's day. But here we have a turn in the poem: "But thy eternal summer shall not fade, nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st." Okay, so your eternal summer is not going to fade. So there's something inherently beautiful about you that's going to stay the same, and is going to endure and last. Nor are you going to lose possession of that particular kind of beauty you have, the fair thou ow'st. Now let me talk about the word "ow'st." There's a- an apostrophe in there, which indicates a missing letter. So the real word should be, "the beauty that thou ownest." The beauty that belongs to you, that you have, is going to- is going to last. So it says, um, "you will not lose possession of that fair, that particular beauty, that thou ownest." However, because that 'n' is left out... I mean he could have just written "ownest" but he wrote "ow'st" which leaves out the 'n'. So we have to think, "well, is there another meaning with ow'st, meaning that you owe something?" And there is. You render back, you give back, uh, you owe your beauty. It's not going to stay, you have to give it back. So as time goes by, superficial beauty is going to be given up, and, you know, returned. It's kind of like, you just get to borrow it, and now you have to give it back. So in the same word, we have the "ownest," what you own eternally and forever, and also what you owe, what you have to give up. All in the same word you have this transitoriness and this permenance, uh, you know, wrapped up in this one word. So, so cool. Shakespeare's amazing. Okay. Moving on, "Nor shall death brag thou wand�rest in his shade, when in eternal lines to Time thou grow�st." Alright, so here's another thing, that death is not going to be able to brag that you are wandering in his shade. Death is personified here as if he's some kind of person who's going to brag, like, "Ooh, I've got you!" But no, he's not going to be able to do that, because you, the lover, are going to be grown into time through eternal lines. So, hold on a second. "Nor shall death brag thou wand'rest in his shade." And by the way, shade is like the shadow of death, you know, death has a darkness, and death will not say, "oh, here you are wandering in my shade." And why are you not going to be truly dead? Because you're going to be grown into time with these eternal lines. It says, "when in eternal lines to Time thou grow'st." Now, how can this be? Well, the- the lines refer to, um, a couple of things. This- this word is replete. Okay, so first of all it is that you're going to be grown into Time, as if Time is a stream and you're going to be joining that stream and preserved for ever more. Now what kind of line would let you be joined with time. Well, lines of descent, lineage. Your DNA can, if you have children, will go on forward in time, and in that way you're preserved. So lines of descent, lines of heredity, will let you join with the eternal Time, capital Time, you know the stream of time that's flowing forward. Lines also can refer to a lifeline, uh, in Shakespeare's time they often thought of the life as a string that was cut by fate at the moment of death. So as soon as fate decides to cut your string, your life line, then your earthly life is over. So that line is going to be, you know, woven into the fabric of time, and then you'll- you'll join in the time. Uh, I think the lines of lineage is a more primary meaning in this- in this line here. In this, you know, piece. In the work. But, uh, there's a third line that I wanna mention. The meaning as a cord, as a rope that ties something, that makes sense because if we're talking about, uh, a process of grafting my individual life onto the, kind of, eternally flowing life of the planet, you know, through DNA my life will join with time... Um, that's a grafting process, and, uh, people who know about plants know that you have to use cords and string to kind of smush one stem onto a larger one, and it will eventually grow into one plant. So that's the third meaning of the word "line" here. Uh, lineage, lifeline, and cords. So let me read it again. "Nor shall death brage thou wand'rest in his shade, when in eternal lines to Time thou grow'st." Okay, so these are all why you're not like a summer's day that ends, because you're going to continue. "So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, so long lives this, and this gives life to thee." Now what is "this?" "This" is the poem. So long as men as... So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, so long lives this poem, and this poem gives life to you. So you will be eternally preserved in the poem. And now we have a fourth meaning of the word "line," which would be lines of poetry. Isn't that cool? Um, wow. Now one last thing I wanna show you... Um, here's a list of some of the words that are in this poem: shines, dimmed, declines, fade, shade. This shows a progression of the sun setting, and it's also a progression of life passing from shining to dimming, declining, all the way down to shade, the shade of death. So, while this feels like a love poem -- and it is, uh, it's addressed to the beloved -- it's more than just a love poem, uh, it's more of comment on what lasts, what's eternal, and what is not lasting, not eternal. Time ha- destroys things, but also some things are preserved. And in this case, he's saying, "You, the beloved, will be preserved in my poem, and also you'll be preserved in your descendants, uh, you know, in the traits that you hand down to your descendants. Uh, and in this way, you are way better than a summer's day." Alright. Phew! I hope you enjoyed that little trip through the poem, and join me for another poem on another day. Thanks a lot!