Sonnet 18

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Le Sonnet 18, fréquemment intitulé Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? est un des plus célèbres parmi les 154 sonnets écrits par le dramaturge et poète William Shakespeare. Figurant parmi la suite de sonnets dédiés à un jeune homme (Fair Youth sequence), c'est-à-dire parmi les 126 premiers sonnets suivant l'édition de 1609, ce poème est le première du cycle après l'introduction qu'on appelle les sonnets de la procréation. La plupart des spécialistes s'accordent désormais pour dire que le sujet originale du poème, l'être aimé à qui le poète écrit, est un homme, bien que le poème soit d'habitude utilisé pour décrire une femme.

Dans ce sonnet, le poète compare son amour avec l'été, et soutient que son amour est meilleur. Le poète déclare également que l'être qu'il aime vivra toujours à travers les mots de ce poème. Les spécialistes ont trouvé des parallèles avec les poèmes d'Ovide Tristia et Amores, ces deux poèmes traitant d'amour. Le Sonnet 18 est écrit suivant la forme du sonnet shakespearien typique, avec 14 vers rimés de pentamètre iambique et une conclusion en distique. Des exégèses détaillés ont révélé plusieurs double sens dans le poème, ce qui permet une large interprétation.

[modifier] Paraphrase

Un fac-similé de l'édition originale du Sonnet 18.

Le poème commence avec un vers d'adoration à l'être aimé : «Shall I compare thee to summer's day?». Le poète poursuit son adoration pour un être «more lovely and more temperate» qu'un jour d'été. Le poète liste plusieurs éléments négatifs au sujet de l'été. Il est trop court («summer's lease hath all too short a date») et parfois le soleil brille trop fort («Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines.») Cependant, l'être aimé ainsi décrit possède une beauté qui durera toujours, à l'inverse de la beauté d'un jour d'été. En mettant la beauté de son amour sous la forme d'un poème, le poète préserve cette beauté pour toujours par le pouvoir des mots écrits. On entrevoit l'espoir d'un amour qui dure malgré le temps qui passe, et si ce n'est par les enfants, alors par le poème que développa leur amour qui, contrairement aux enfants, ne fanera pas.

[modifier] Context

The poem is part of the Fair Youth sequence (which comprises sonnets 1-126 in the accepted numbering stemming from the first edition in 1609). It is also the first of the cycle after the opening sequence now described as the Procreation sonnets, although some scholars see it as a part of the Procreation sonnets, as it still addresses the idea of reaching eternal life through the written word, a theme of sonnets 15-17. In this view, it can be seen as part of a transition to sonnet 20's time theme.^[1] There are many theories about the identity of the 1609 Quarto's enigmatic dedicatee, Mr. W.H.. Some scholars suggest that this poem may be expressing a hope that the Procreation sonnets despaired of: the hope of metaphorical procreation in a homosexual relationship.^[2] Other scholars have pointed out that the order in which the sonnets are placed may have been the decision of publishers and not of Shakespeare. This introduces the possibility that Sonnet 18 was originally intended for a woman.^[3]

Scholars have outlined this poem's similarities to a portion of Ovid's Tristia. Near the end of this book of poems, Ovid writes (translated from the original Latin): "What a monument I have raised to thee in my books, O my wife, dearer to me than myself, thou seest. Though fate may take much from their author, thou at least shall be made illustrious by my powers. As long as I am read, thy fame shall be read along with me." Ovid's Amores follows a similar vein: "So likewise we will through the world be rung / And with my name shall thine always be sung." Shakespeare is known to have used Ovid in many of his other works as well. In sonnet 18 he seems to have borrowed the general idea of immortality of the writer and his lover through poetry.^[4]

[modifier] Structure

Modèle:Sample box start variation 2 Modèle:Listen Modèle:Sample box end Sonnet 18 is a typical English or Shakespearean sonnet. It consists of three quatrains followed by a couplet, and has the characteristic rhyme scheme: abab cdcd efef gg. The poem carries the meaning of an Italian or Petrarchan Sonnet. Petrarchan sonnets typically discussed the love and beauty of a beloved, often an unattainable love, but not always.^[5] It also contains a volta, or shift in the poem's subject matter, beginning with the third quatrain.^[6]

[modifier] Exegesis

A Renaissance drawing outlining man's place as a microcosm of the universe. Renaissance writers often drew connections between inward feelings (humours) of man and the world surrounding him (i. e. the weather). Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 is no exception.

The durations of time—"day" in line one, "May" in line three, “summer” in line four—lead towards the “eternal” in lines nine and twelve. Whereas the first two quatrains are characterized by constant change, the second half of the sonnet is increasingly focussed on the eternal.^[8]

"Complexion" in line six, can have two meanings: 1) The outward appearance of the face as compared with the sun ("the eye of heaven") in the previous line, or 2) the older sense of the word in relation to the five humours. In the time of Shakespeare, "complexion" carried both outward and inward meanings, as did the word "temperate" (externally, a weather condition; internally, a balance of humours). The second meaning of "complexion" would communicate that the beloved's inner, cheerful, and temperate disposition is sometimes blotted out like the sun on a cloudy day. The first meaning is more obvious, meaning of a negative change in his outward appearance.^[9]

The word, "untrimmed" in line eight, can be taken two ways: First, in the sense of loss of decoration and frills, and second, in the sense of untrimmed sails on a ship. In the first interpretation, the poem reads that beautiful things naturally lose their fanciness over time. In the second, it reads that nature is a ship with sails not adjusted to wind changes in order to correct course. This, in combination with the words "nature's changing course", creates an oxymoron: the unchanging change of nature, or the fact that the only thing that does not change is change. This line in the poem creates a shift from the mutability of the first eight lines, into the eternity of the last six. Both change and eternity are then acknowledged and challenged by the final line.^[5]

"Ow'st" in line ten can also carry two meanings equally common at the time: "ownest" and "owest". Many readers interpret it as "ownest", as do many Shakespearean glosses ("owe" in Shakespeare's day, was sometimes used as a synonym for "own"). However, "owest" delivers an interesting view on the text. It conveys the idea that beauty is something borrowed from nature—that it must be paid back as time progresses. In this interpretation, "fair" can be a pun on "fare", or the fare required by nature for life's journey.^[10] Other scholars have pointed out that this borrowing and lending theme within the poem is true of both nature and humanity. Summer, for example, is said to have a "lease" with "all too short a date." This monetary theme is common in many of Shakespeare's sonnets, as it was an everyday theme in his budding capitalistic society.^[11]