Sonnet 18 - Shakespeare Past paper exam questions Grd 12 FAL

 Read the poem and answer the questions.

Sonnet 18 William Shakespeare

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate.

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, 5 

And often is his gold complexion dimmed;

And every fair from fair sometime declines,

By chance or nature’s changing course untrimmed.

But they eternal summer shall not fade,

Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st 10

Nor shall Death brag thou wand’rest in his shade,

When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st.

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,

So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

3.1 Complete the following sentences by filling in the missing words.

Write only the word next to the question numbers (3.1.1–3.1.4) in the answer book. 

Miltonic; iambic; octaves; sestet; rhyming couplet; quatrains; Elizabethan; free verse

‘Sonnet 18’ is a/an 3.1.1 _____ sonnet. It consists of three 3.1.2 _____ followed by 

a 3.1.3 _____. The poem is written in fourteen lines in 3.1.4 _____ pentameter. (4)

3.2 How do you explain the fact that in that in this poem, the month of May is in the summer

season? (1)

3.3 The poet implies that all beauty in nature fades eventually.

Using your own words, state TWO negative qualities of summer mentioned in

the poem. (2)

3.4 Explain and comment on the poet’s use of personification in lines 5 and 11. (4)

 Refer to line 7: ‘And every fair ... sometimes declines’. 

3.5.1 What poetic device has been used in the above line? (1)

3.5.2 Explain what the poet means with the abovementioned line. (2)

3.6 In your own opinion, does the speaker succeed in immortalising the lady’s beauty?

Discuss your view.

Answers from Memo:

Elizabethan  (1)

3.1.2 quatrains  (1)

3.1.3 rhyming couplet  (1)

3.1.4 iambic  (1)

3.2 In the Northern Hemisphere summer is in May.  (1)

3.3 Rough winds strip the plants from their flowers. / It is too hot / Summer is too short. /

Clouds make the sun shine less brightly.

(Any TWO of the above). 

3.4 In line 5 the sun is personified as the ‘eye of heaven’  conveying the idea that the sun

looks down from above and watches what goes on below. 

In line 11 Death is personified as someone who is arrogant and unsympathetic  who

brags about his conquests in taking away the lives of mortals. 

(Accept other relevant answers) (4)

3.5.1 Alliteration  (1)

3.5.2 Beautiful things  don’t always stay beautiful.  (2)

3.6 Yes. The person’s beauty has been captured in the poem/The poem will be read for many

years and every time the poem is read, her beauty will be remembered.

OR

No. The poem will have a more lingering effect on readers than the beauty of the lady.

DO NOT award a mark for YES or NO only.

For full marks, the response must be well-substantiated. A candidate can score 1–2 marks

for a response which is not well-substantiated. The candidate’s interpretation must be

grounded in the text of the poem. 