EXERCISES FROM PAGES 136-137 FROM THE LITERATURE BOOK

EX.1

a. T

b. F

c. F

d. T

e. F

f. T

EX.2

a.

	STANZA 1	STANZA 2
INITIAL WORD	When	when
WHAT THE LYRICAL “I” DOES	The lyrical “I” considers	He perceives man grow like plants
THE OBJECT OF CONSIDERATION	everything that grows and is perfect just for a little moment	men grow like plants

b. The sky in line 6 and the stars in line four influence the lives of all living things, cheering them on or getting in their way.

c. In the first quatrain the speaking voice uses a metaphor and tells the reader that life is a stage in which there are only show that the stars watch and comment among themselves.

EX.3

a. Then.

b. The subject of this stanza is “you”, which is referred to the Fair Youth.

c. The fact that beauty and youth are only temporary makes the Fair Youth even more precious in the speaker’s eyes.

d. The metaphor which underlines decay and old age is lines 11 and 12.

EX.4

1. love

2. fights

3. time

4. youth

5. beloved

6. life

7. poem

EX.5

a. The stars, the sky, Time and Decay are personified through the description of their actions and desires.

b. Human and plants alike have a life cycle, and a period of time when they are at their peak: when they are “in bloom”. In line seven the poet used the form “youthful sap” to describe men’s youth and beauty. In the last line of the sonnet the poet uses the verb “to engraft” (a botanical term) with the meaning of “to gift”, further proving his point that men and plants are a lot more alike than we think.

EX6

	RHYME SCHEME AND MAIN FIGURES OF SPEECH	OPENING WORDS	THE POET’S CONSIDERATIONS
QUATRAIN 1	ABAB metaphor and personification	When I consider	The beauty of youth is fickle
QUATRAIN 2	CDCD personification and use of synaesthesia	When I perceive	Men and plants grow influenced by the sky
QUATRAIN 3	EFEF personification and synaesthesia	Then the conceit	Time and Decay try to change the Fair Youth making him grow older
COUPLET	GG synaesthesia	And all in war	Whatever time may take from the Fair Youth, the speaker will give it back through his poetry, giving him new life

TEXTUAL ANALYSIS OF A SONNET

SONNET XV:

When I consider every thing that grows
Holds in perfection but a little moment,
That this huge stage presenteth nought but shows
Whereon the stars in secret influence comment;

When I perceive that men as plants increase,
Cheered and cheque'd even by the self-same sky,
Vaunt in their youthful sap, at height decrease,
And wear their brave state out of memory;

Then the conceit of this inconstant stay
Sets you most rich in youth before my sight,
Where wasteful Time debateth with Decay,
To change your day of youth to sullied night;

And all in war with Time for love of you,
As he takes from you, I engraft you new.

-William Shakespeare

ANALYSIS OF THE SONNET XV

Sonnet XV is a Shakespearean sonnet which belongs to the collection of the Marriage Sonnets, in which Shakespeare invites his beloved Fair Youth to marry and have children so his beauty can live on. The sonnet presents the typical Elizabethan scheme of three quatrains and a rhyming couplet; the rhyme scheme is:

A B A B   C D C D   E F E F   G G

In the first quatrain the speaking voice compares life to a stage in which shows are played constantly and are being judged by the stars, that secretly influence the outcomes of this shows. He considers the fact that everything, men and plants alike, grow beautiful and strong but it quickly withers and dies. The stanza begins with “When I” which is then repeated at the beginning of the second stanza.

The second stanza begins with the repetition of “When I”, underlining that the lyrical “I” is talking about two different aspects of the same thing. Indeed he further explains that humans and plants bot grow under the influence of the sky that cheers them on or hinders them. The speaker uses “youthful sap” to describe youth to highlight the affinity between men and nature. He says that men, just like plants, grow proud until their value consumes itself not leaving even a memory behind.

The third quatrain represents a turning pointin which the speaker leaves the generic discussions from earlier to focus on a more personal subject:the fair youth. It begins with “then, introducing a change of subject. The lyrical “I” says that the ephemeral character of beauty makes the Fair Youth’s even more precious before his eyes. The speaker then focusses on the personifications of Time and Decay, that are scheming to make the Fair Youth grow older and to turn his “day of youth” into “sullied night”.

The rhyming couplet begins with “And”, meaning it is an addition to the meaning of the poem. The speaker tells the fair youth that whatever Time may take from him, hi will give it back; he uses the word “engraft” which is a botanical term, to recall the semantics of plants and gardening. The speaker’s saying that he will write poetry to make the Fair Youth’s beauty immortal, a concept reprised along with the natural’s semantics in Sonnet XVIII (Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?).