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. Sonnet 18 . . Ophelia's Immortality Sonnet . (original language, but moderately updated) (O Rose of May! Dear maid, kind sister, sweet Ophelia.....) 01. Shall I compare thee to a Summer's day? 02. Thou art more lovely and more temperate: 03. Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, 04. And Summer's lease hath all too short a date: 05. Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, 06. And often is his gold complexion dimm'd; 07. And every fair from fair some-time declines, 08. By chance, or nature's changing course untrimm'd: 09. But thy eternal Summer shall not fade, 10. Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st, 11. Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade, 12. When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st, 13. So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, 14. So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. |
. Sonnet 18 . . Ophelia's Immortality Sonnet . (elucidated) (O Rose of May! Dear maid, kind sister, sweet Ophelia.....) 01. Shall I compare thee to a Summer's day? 02. Thou art more lovely and more temperate: 03. Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, from their slender slivers in weeping willow trees, 04. And Summer's lease hath all too short a date: 05. Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, as when the Son, Hamlet, glares at you in the Nunnery Scene, 06. And often is his gold complexion dimm'd, by melancholy; 07. And every fair from fair some-time declines, when it falls from the tree of life, 08. By chance, or nature's changing course untrimm'd: 09. But thy eternal Summer shall not fade, Ophelia, you shall never age, 10. Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st, to the world, 11. Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade, (like the Ghost,) 12. When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st, as Hamlet, now in publication, becomes known by more and more people: 13. So long as men can breathe (to speak the lines of Hamlet on stage,) or eyes can see, (to read Hamlet in print,) 14. So long lives this, (your story, Ophelia, in Hamlet,) and this gives life to thee. |
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Sonnet 18 Gloss
L2: temperate = mild. (Note, to the right.) L4: Summer's = youth's. (Note, to the right.) L4: lease = allowance, in the sense of the time allowed for something. L4: too short = too soon. L4: date = date of expiration. L5: eye of heaven = the sun. (An implicit pun with "son.") L6: gold - Refers to both the classic color of the sun, and also implies 'value.' The sun's warmth is valuable. L6: complexion = 'mood.' L7: fair = fair creature. L7: from fair = from handsomeness; from being handsome. L7: declines = falls. L8: changing = change-causing. L8: untrimm'd = unslowed. Nautical metaphor, from the practice of trimming sail to slow a ship. L9: fade = darken. So as to be lost from sight. L10: ow'st - (Note, to the right.) L11: shade = darkness. Also, 'ghost.' (Double meaning.) L12: to time = into the future. L12: grow'st = flourish. L13: breathe - To be able to speak. L14: this - (Note, to the right.) |
Sonnet 18 Notes
Sonnet 18 is "Ophelia's Immortality Sonnet." Shakespeare wrote it in celebration of his Ophelia character in Hamlet. It promises Ophelia eternal Summer. The original Sonnets publication of 1609 does not have the Sonnets in the order in which they were written. Sonnet 99 was written before this Sonnet. That's conclusive, because Sonnet 99 deals with the choice of flowers for Ophelia while Shakespeare was composing the Ophelia character. This Sonnet concerns Ophelia as completed, and in publication. So, Sonnet 99 obviously had to be written before this Sonnet. You may suppose this Sonnet means anything - As You Like It - so feel free, but Sonnet 18 was inspired by, and has reference to, the Ophelia character in Hamlet. Since Sonnet 18 mentions "eternal lines" that men can "see," it was written after July 26, 1602, the date James Roberts registered Hamlet for publication. Further, the Sonnet was probably written after the Second Quarto of Hamlet was printed and offered for sale, most likely the spring of 1605. ------- L2: temperate = mild. In the Visconti-Sforza tarot deck, the "Temperance" maiden is the same character as the "Star" maiden. The Visconti-Sforza tarot deck, and other historical tarot decks, provide some ready-made illustrations for Hamlet, and other Shakespeare writings. L4: Summer's = youth's. The concept in line 4 is that youth is the "summer" of one's life, and it is time that is only "leased" in the sense of being borrowed, from Nature, for a limited duration. A person doesn't "own" his own youth, meaning it can't be kept forever, and must eventually be surrendered. L10: ow'st The word is "owest" = owe. It connects back to "lease" in line 4. Various interpretations, that one may find elsewhere, try to treat the word as "ownest" (possess) but that's obviously wrong. The Poet is continuing to talk about beauty that's "owed" under the mentioned "lease" in line 4. However, the Poet has changed point of view, in line 10, and now means the beauty "owed" to the world, to see, in anticipation of line 13. So it's the same idea of "owe," but from a different angle. L14: this "This" is an ambiguous word. It can mean either "this, here" or it can mean "that, there." In this case it means "that," and the "that" is Hamlet. |
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