“Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day” by William Shakespeare continued

Poetic Devices

Poetic devices are the devices used bypoets to express their thought in vivid description. The ones used by William Shakespeare in Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day are discussed below.

Presentation Technique

William Shakespeare speaks of his friend’s beauty through the device of persona. This device is the 1^st-person narrative style. The first line with the word ‘I’ confirms it; ‘Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?’

Rhetorical Question

The expression in line 1, ‘shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?, is a rhetorical question that does not require an answer.

Metaphor

Metaphor is richly used by the poem in this poem. In line 5, ‘Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines’, ‘the eye of heaven’ is a metaphor referring to ‘sun’.

Personification

This device is found in line 11 of the poem ‘Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade’. Death is attributed to human ability to drag.

Symbolism

In line 3 of the poem, the poet makes reference to ‘rough winds’ that blow on the brightness of the summer and mar its beauty.