Shall I compare you to a summer’s day?
You are more lovely, calm and decent:
Strong winds shake the buds on the trees in May,
And the summer is too short;
Sometimes the sun is very hot,
Or often hides behinds the clouds;
And what has beauty, can simply lose it,
Unluckily, or by the nature’s plans;
But you will be young forever,
And your beauty will not fade away;
And death will not owe your soul one day,
You will live in the lines of my poem forever:
As long as there is a life on the earth,
Until this verse lives on, it will keep you alive.
After barbaric rewrite, the poem has totally lost its beauty and imagery that are mainly actualized by means of figurative language or stylistic devices, which were deliberately omitted. However, the poem still preserved its form and meaning. The form is though quite rough and does not resemble a sonnet any more. Moreover, although the rhythm and amateur rhyme do appear in some lines, in some other ones they are unseized and ineffectual. The image of sun, in particular: “And often is his gold complexion dimm’d; And every fair from fair sometime declines” (Shakespeare), loses a lot in the barbaric interpretation. Its original, delicate and outstanding artistic description of the master of the classic English literature has been replaced by regular words, which do not help to express and visualize any piece of glory of the sun. In the simplified version it is basically downplayed to a celestial body only. The sun has a strong symbolic image in poetry, and when it is diminished, it worsens the poetic writing and general impression a lot. In addition, what withers after barbarization is the description of longevity of living, displayed in the following lines: “So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee” (Shakespeare). Their beauty is impressive. The lines are framed with a remarkable rhyme, which embraces a reader with a romantic mood and sticks in his memory for a long while. In the meantime, the revised version starts not bad, but ends with the awkward, unrhymed phrase and, thus, it spoils the whole impression after reading the poem, which is intolerable in terms of poetry writing.
As a result, poetry, especially that of Shakespeare, is too mighty and, simultaneously, too tender to make such experiments on it. It is something much more meaningful and elevated than just a set of words. It is a uniquely crafted integrity, which sometimes has a few lines, but is fully saturated with life. When full of beauty and meaning, poetry can “pronounce” and “emit” light, scent, taste, sound, and not even saying about feelings and emotions. When barbarically simplified, mutilated and devoid of all its values, it becomes ruined and deprived of its magic and glory. Moreover, a high-flown and sophisticated poetic language is substituted by a non-figurative one, i.e. plain and usual words. The absence or lack of imagery, rhythm as well as deep symbolism turns it into a soulless, ordinary text. Consequently, the importance and power of poetry consist in its aesthetic value. Thus, one can find truth and consolation, another - appreasement or revival in or in-between its lines.
Works cited
Shakespeare, William. “Sonnet 18: Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” Poetry Foundation. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 February 2016.
