Feminism

18*

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 thy eternal summer shall not fade

Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
 10

Nor shall Death brag thou wanderest in his shade,

When in eternal lines to time thou growest:

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,

So long lives this and this gives life to thee.

20*

A woman's face with Nature's own hand painted


Hast thou, the master-mistress of my passion;

A woman's gentle heart, but not acquainted


With shifting change, as is false women's fashion;

An eye more bright than theirs, less false in rolling,5

Gilding the object whereupon it gazeth;

A man in hue, all 'hues' in his controlling,

Which steals men's eyes and women's souls amazeth.

And for a woman wert thou first created;

Till Nature, as she wrought thee, fell a-doting,
 10

And by addition me of thee defeated,

By adding one thing to my purpose nothing.

But since she prick'd thee out for women's pleasure,

Mine be thy love and thy love's use their treasure.

138*

When my love swears that she is made of truth,

I do believe her though I know she lies,

That she might think me some untutored youth,

Unlearned in the world's false subtleties.

Thus vainly thinking that she thinks me young, 5

Although she knows my days are past the best,

Simply I credit her false-speaking tongue:

On both sides thus is simple truth suppressed:

But wherefore says she not she is unjust?

And wherefore say not I that I am old? 10

O! love's best habit is in seeming trust,

And age in love, loves not to have years told:

Therefore I lie with her, and she with me,

And in our faults by lies we flattered be.

Glosses (short explanations of difficult words)

Sonnet 18:

Line 2. Thou art: you are; temperate--moderate

4. lease hath all too short a date: allotted time ends

too soon

5. the eye of heaven: the sun

7. fair from fair: beautiful thing or person

from its state of beauty

8. nature's changing course: the changing seasons,

or natural decay; “untrimm'd”—unadorned (and

hence blunt, brutal)

10. thou owest: you own

11. thou wanderest: you wander

12. thou growest: you grow

14. this: (“this” sonnet, written in “eternal lines”)

Sonnet 20:

Line 1. with Nature's own hand painted: beautified

by Nature herself (not “painted” with cosmetics)

2. “master-mistress”: a paradox the poem discusses

4. false women's fashion: deceitful women’s habit

5. rolling: roving

6. Gilding: overlaying with gold; “gazeth”--gazes

7. hues: colors, complexion (therefore not

blushing uncontrollably as a woman may)

8. Which: (the “hue”); “amazeth”—amazes, stuns

9. for: as; wert thou: were you

10. a-doting: foolishly in love

11. defeated: deprived

13. pricked: marked and gave you a prick/penis

14. thy love’s use: enjoyment (“use”) of your

(sexual) love. (“use” also suggested at the time

interest growing on an investment: Give me the

capital, them the interest, perhaps alluding to kids)

Sonnet 138 (perhaps the most famous of these

sonnets at the time, but not now)

1. made of truth: is always true and faithful

2. believe (apparently, only appear to believe)

3. That: so that; untutored: unsophisticated, simple

4. Unlearned in: ignorant of; false subtleties:

deceitful tricks, guiles

5. vainly: foolishly and/or conceitedly

7. simply credit: foolishly believe

8. wherefore: why

11. habit: both habit and clothing

12. age: old people; years told: their age revealed

13. lie with: lie to and have sex with

14. faults: defects; flattered: pleasurably deceived