SONNET 18

Dovrei paragonarti a un giorno d'estate?
Tu sei più amabile e più tranquillo.
Impetuosi venti scuotono le tenere gemme di Maggio,
E il corso dell'estate ha fin troppo presto una fine.
Talvolta troppo caldo splende l'occhio del cielo,
E spesso la sua pelle dorata s'oscura;
E ogni cosa bella la bellezza talora declina,
spogliata per caso o per il mutevole corso della natura.

Ma la tua eterna estate non dovrà svanire,
Né perder la bellezza che possiedi,
Né dovrà la morte farsi vanto che tu vaghi nella sua ombra,
Quando in eterni versi nel tempo tu crescerai:
Finché uomini respireranno o occhi potran vedere,
Queste parole vivranno, e daranno vita a te.

PAG.139 ES.1

A.The pronoun thee refers to Sheakspire lover, mr. W.H.

B. At a summer day

C. Summer is perturbed by rough winds

    Summer is too hot.

    Summer is gold complexion

    Summer’s beauty sometimes declines

D. the lover is better than summer because he shall not fade.

E. the fame of the poetry will last as long as there is life on hearth and this make the lover eternal.

PAG.139 ES.2

A. Yes, there is a symmetry in the structure. It is arranged into three quatrain and a rhyming couple.

B. the main subject of the two stanzas is the summer

C. the end of the summer

PAG.139 ES.3

Sole

La tua eterna estate

PAG.139 ES.4

Man

Shadow

PAG.139 ES.5

Eternal summer stands for eternal poetry

Eternal lines stand for the eternal life of the lover

PAG.139 ES.6

As long as people have eyes to read this poem (that is, to the end of the world), this poem will exist making the poet’s love eternal.

PAG.139 ES.7

ABAB; question and answer; introduction: comparison between day of summer and the lover

CDCD; main clause, and the end of the things; the characteristics of summer

EFEF; but introduces coordinate, coordinate sentences, time clause; conclusion: the young lover will grow up in the verse

GG; rhetorical figures (so long); conclusion: poetry will make a poem that will last forever

PAG.139 ES.8

Gilgamesh's Failure.

Gilgamesh's Epic is an epic cycle of sumechanical setting, written in cuneiform characters on clay tablets, which dates back to about 4500 years ago . The story focuses on the epic search for eternal life by Gilgamesh, King of Uruk, grandson of Enmerkar and son of Lugalbanda. Guilty of rejecting the advances of the goddess Ishtar, Gilgamesh and his comrade-in-arms Enkidu defeat the fearsome Heavenly Bull charged with avenging the goddess' honor. The killing of the semi-divine Heavenly Bull angers the other gods, who kill Enkidu as punishment. Terrified by the loss of his comrade-in-arms and the idea that death is also a must, Gilgamesh embarks on a long journey in search of Utanapitim, the only survivor of the Universal Flood, to learn the secret of immortality he had received as a gift from the gods.After several traverses and adventures Gilgamesh finally finds the old Utanapitim, who informs him that immortality is unattainable in the absence of the will of the gods. Utanapi'tim has aged because together with immortality the gods had not given him eternal youth. However, he confides to Gilgamesh that he is looking for a 'thorny magic plant' capable of bringing back to youth anyone who feeds on them.So Gilgamesh sets out on a journey in search of the plant, finally tracing it to the depths of the abyss. However, fate is not favourable to him; on the way home a snake steals the magic plant, obtaining for itself the gift of mutating skin. The epilogue of the story describes a desperate Gilgamesh and now aware of the inevitable human mortality.

TEXTUAL ANALYSIS OF THE SONNET

Reading the title, I expect the sonnet to be about people that will be compared to other people. The sonnet is arranged into three quatrain and a rhyming couplet. The sonnet is part of a composition called marriage sonnet. In the first quatrain there is a comparison between the summer days and the lover. In the second quatrain the principal characteristic is the summer that pass and ends. In the third quatrain the young lover will grow in the verses. In the rhyming couplet there is the conclusion of the poem that will last forever. There are two metaphors: “eye of heaven” that means he sun and “thy eternal summer”.  The message is that if you love someone your love if is true will last forever not as the seasons.