Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day?

William Shakespeare

1. What is a sonnet? 

Ans: A sonnet is a kind of lyric poem having fourteen iambic pentameter lines.

2. What kind of poem is a Sonnet?

Ans: Sonnet is a lyric poem.

3. Who invented sonnet?

Ans: Giacomo da Lentin invented sonnet.

4. What is the division of Shakespearean sonnet?

Ans: The division of Shakespearean sonnet is three quatrains and s couplet. (abab cdcd efef gg)

5. What is the rhyme scheme of a Shakespearean sonnet?

Ans: The rhyme scheme of the Shakespearean sonnet is abab cdcd efef gg.

6. What is the subtitle of Shakespeare's Sonnet-18?

Ans: The subtitle of Shakespeare’s Sonnet-18 is “Shall I Compare Thee to a Summers Day”.

7. What is the theme of Sonnet XVIII?

Ans: The theme of Sonnet XVIII is eternal love.

8. What is the rhyme pattern in 'Sonnet-18"?

Ans: The rhyme pattern of the poem ‘Sonnet-18’ is abab cdcd efef gg.

9. Who is the handsome young man to whom Sonnet-18 is addressed? 

Ans: The handsome young man to whom Sonnet-18 is addressed is Earl of Southampton.

10. Who is 'Thee' in "Sonnet XVIII? 

Ans: The friend of the poet, Earl of Southampton, is the ‘Thee’ in “SonnetXVIII.

11. What does Shakespeare Praise in sonnet-18?

Ans: In Sonnet-18 Shakespeare praises the beauty of his friend, Earl of Southampton.  

12. Write the first two lines of Sonnet-18. 

Ans: The first two lines of Sonnet-18 are given below: 

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? 

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

13. How is a day in Summer in Britain? 

Ans: A day in summer in Britain is short, too hot and sometimes cloudy.

14. What does "A Summer's day” stand for? 

Ans: “A Summer's day” stands for youth.

15. Why doesn’t Shakespeare compare his friend to a summer's day?

Ans: Shakespeare doesn’t compare his friend to a summer's day because the beauty of a summer’s day is less than that of his friend.

16. How is the month of May in England?

Ans: The month of May in England is full of lovely blooming flowers.  

17. What is meant by "Darling buds" in "Sonnet XVIll"?

Ans: In “Sonnet XVIII”, the “Darling buds|” means the lovely blooming flowers.

18. What is “eye of heaven” in "Sonnet-18"?

Ans: In "Sonnet-18" “eye of heaven” means the sun.

19. What figure of speech do you find in "eye of heaven"? What does it suggest? 

Ans: We find metaphor in the expression, “eye of heaven”. Here the ‘eye of heaven’ suggests the sun.

20. "Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines" - identify the figure. 

Ans: Periphrasis / Metaphor / Personification.

21. What does "eternal summer" mean?

Ans: “Eternal summer” means the everlasting youthful charm.

22. When did William Shakespeare die?

Ans: William Shakespeare died on April 23, 1616. 

23. What is figure of speech?

Ans: Figure of speech is a rhetorical device that achieves a special effect by using words in distinctive ways.

24. Define metaphor with an example.

Ans: Metaphor is the implicit comparison between two different things without using ‘like’, ‘as’ etc. For example, ‘She is a rose.’ is a metaphor.

25. What is a quatrain? 

Ans: A quatrain is a stanza of four lines.

26. What is a couplet?

Ans: A couplet usually consists of two successive lines that rhyme and have the same metre 

27. What is a rhetoric question?

Ans: A rhetorical question is a question where the answer is implied. It is asked not to get an answer, but to emphasize a point.

28. What is 'personification"?

Ans: Personification means the attribution of a personal nature or human characteristic to something nonhuman, or the representation of an abstract quality in human form.

29. What is metre?

Ans: Meter is a stressed and unstressed syllabic pattern in a verse or within the lines of a poem. It is a poetic device that serves as a linguistic sound pattern for the verses, as it gives poetry a rhythmical and melodious sound.

30. What is scansion?

Ans: Scansion is the metrical analysis of verse.

31. What is pun or paronomasia?

Ans: Pun is a play upon words where the sound is similar but the meaning is different.