Thursday, November 8, 2007

Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day?

Hey, this is Angelina, and I just found a pretty cool poem that I wanted to share with you guys. It's a different version of Shakespeare's sonnet “Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day?” by Howard Moss. As a referencing point, I'm including the Shakespearean version as well. Enjoy!

Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day?
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 to short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometimes declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimmed.
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Not lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;
Nor shall death brag thou wand'rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st.
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
--- William Shakespeare

Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day?
Who says you're like one of the dog days?
You're nicer. And better.
Even in May, the weather can be gray,
And a summer sub-let doesn't last forever.
Sometimes the sun's too hot;
Sometimes it's not.
Who can stay young forever?
People break their necks or just drop dead!
But you? Never!
If there's just one condensed reader left
Who can figure out the abridged alphabet,
After you're dead and gone,
In this poem you'll live on!
--- Howard Moss

3 comments:

ENG3U Student said...

This parody is really hilarious. I love this : "People break their necks or just drop dead!
But you? Never!"
- Amal

ENG3U Student said...

I really like both of them. You can enjoy both of them on different levels, the Shakespearean one is sweet in melodious while the second is contemporary and is more understandable

-Ielaf :)

ENG3U Student said...

Angelina,

Now if only all of his plays and sonnets were written like that! Then we'd be set as English scholars, wouldn't we?

Cheers,
Mr. G