Question

shall i compare thee to a summers day?
thou art more lovely and more temperate.
rough winds do shake the darling buds

of may,
and summers lease hath all too short a
date.
sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
and often is his gold complexion

and every fair from fair sometime declines,
by chance, or natures changing course,
untrimmed;
but thy eternal summer shall not fade,
nor lose possession of that fair thou owst,
nor shall death brag thou wandrest

in his shade,
when in eternal lines to time thou growst:

so long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
so long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

1. part a: which of the following best describes the

function of \time\ in the poem?
a. the speaker declares that his beloveds loveliness
will live on forever through his poetry, unlike the short-
lived summer season.
b. the speaker laments the fleeting nature of
summer, as it is his favorite season and he wishes its
warmth and brightness could last longer.
c. the speaker admits that although his beloveds
beauty will fade with time, his love will not fade.
d. the speaker explains that he loves his beloved
more than he adores the summer because his beloved
can love him back.

Explanation:

The poem "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" by William Shakespeare is a sonnet. In this sonnet, the speaker is comparing his beloved to a summer's day. The key idea is that while summer (and nature's beauty in general) is fleeting (as mentioned in lines like "And summer's lease hath all too short a date", "Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimmed; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimmed"), the speaker's beloved's loveliness will live on forever through his poetry ("So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee"). So the function of "Time" in the poem is that the speaker declares that his beloved's loveliness will live on forever through his poetry, unlike the short - lived summer season (which is affected by time).

Answer:

A. The speaker declares that his beloved's loveliness will live on forever through his poetry, unlike the short - lived summer season.