Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day by William Shakespeare

Seamus Heaney was born in 1939 in a small agricultural town in county Derry. In 1957 he went to Queen's University in Belfast where he studied literature. He returned to Queen's in 1965 as a lecturer. In 1972 Heaney moved to the Republic of Ireland because of the bitterness between Catholics and Protestants in the North. He taught at Carysfort College in Dublin from 1975 to 1980. He also taught at Harvard University, Massachusetts and Cambridge, England. His poetry is mainly concentrated upon his childhood years in Northern Ireland. The greatest achievement so far in his life is that he received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1995.

William Shakespeare is recognised the world over as being the greatest playwright, dramatists and writer of all time. He was born in 1564 and baptised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. He was the third of eight children and the eldest son. He apprenticed his father as a glove maker but because of declines in business it would no longer be commercially viable for him to take over his fathers business. In 1582 Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway, who was the daugh

In "Shall I Compare Thee To A Summer's Day?" which is Sonnet eighteen in the series of one hundred and fifty four, Shakespeare writes in praise of his lady's beauty. He, in tradition, uses something in nature in comparison to a woman's beauty, in this case to a wonderful summer's day. Shakespeare, in this case, does not start by comparing the two but instead he asks the question, "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" Which in fact is a metorical question, he then goes on to explain in meticulous detail how his lady's beauty is much greater than that of a summers day. He dismisses the summer's beauty as an in adequate comparison, "Thou art more lovely and more temperate." Shakespeare refuses to idealise the summer, he points out the imperfections in nature's summer, "Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May," " Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines." He shows us that the summer time is only superficially beautiful and unpredictable.

The last stanza again makes great use of imagery, "Wearing a poppy bruise on his left temple." It also tells us that at this stage Heaney was beginning to accept his brother's death, which, I am sure, cannot be an easy task. "He lay in a four foot box as in his cot," this is a very touching line that tells us that Heaney is actually not angry but almost at peace, he has accepted the death of his brother. It is the last stanza that we find out also how he died, "the bumper knocked him clear." It isn't until the solitary line ending when we know how old the child was, "A four foot box, a foot for every year." It is the last line that would appeal to most people; the fact that the child killed was only four would affect many people's emotions.

Not only the title is deceptive, throughout the poem you are clutching at straws to try and find out what will happen or what has happened. The first stanza has a somewhat eerie air to it. It is speculative and gets your mind working. "At two o'clock my neighbours drove me home," this, the closing line of the first stanza has us pondering as to why were his neighbours driving him home.

"In the porch I met my father crying," is the line that opens the second stanza. It is unusual for a child to see a parent cry, especially the father, this could have been an extremely traumatic sight for the young Seamus Heaney. In this verse we also learn that someone has passed away,

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Approximate Word count = 1652
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)