武漢大學英美文學考試資料整理-資料下載頁

　　

【正文】 e is no such selfdoubt and the eternal summer of the youth is preserved forever in the poet39。s lines. The poem also works at a rather curious level of achieving its objective through dispraise. The summer39。s day is found to be lacking in so many respects (too short, too hot, too rough, sometimes too dingy), but curiously enough one is left with the abiding impression that 39。the lovely boy39。 is in fact like a summer39。s day at its best, fair, warm, sunny, temperate, one of the darling buds of May, and that all his beauty has been wonderfully highlighted by the parison。　全詩的基本格律是五音步抑揚格（iambic pentameter）1. Shall I pare thee to a summer39。s day?　This is taken usually to mean 39。What if I were to pare thee etc?39。 The stock parisons of the loved one to all the beauteous things in nature hover in the background throughout. One also remembers Wordsworth39。s lines:　We39。ll talk of sunshine and of song,　And summer days when we were young,　Sweet childish days which were as long　As twenty days are now.　Such reminiscences are indeed anachronistic, but with the recurrence of words such as 39。summer39。, 39。days39。, 39。song39。, 39。sweet39。, it is not difficult to see the permeating influence of the Sonnets on Wordsworth39。s verse.2. Thou art more lovely and more temperate:　The youth39。s beauty is more perfect than the beauty of a summer day. more temperate more gentle, more restrained, whereas the summer39。s day might have violent excesses in store, such as are about to be described.3. Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,　May was a summer month in Shakespeare39。s time, because the calendar in use lagged behind the true sidereal calendar by at least a fortnight.　darling buds of May the beautiful, much loved buds of the early summer。 favourite flowers.4. And summer39。s lease hath all too short a date:　Legal terminology. The summer holds a lease on part of the year, but the lease is too short, and has an early termination (date).5. Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,　Sometime = on occasion, sometimes。　the eye of heaven = the sun.6. And often is his gold plexion dimmed,　his gold plexion = his (the sun39。s) golden face. It would be dimmed by clouds and on overcast days generally.7. And every fair from fair sometime declines,　All beautiful things (every fair) occasionally bee inferior in parison with their essential previous state of beauty (from fair). They all decline from perfection.8. By chance, or nature39。s changing course untrimmed:　By chance accidents, or by the fluctuating tides of nature, which are not subject to control, nature39。s changing course untrimmed.　untrimmed this can refer to the ballast (trimming) on a ship which keeps it stable。 or to a lack of ornament and decoration. The greater difficulty however is to decide which noun this adjectival participle should modify. Does it refer to nature, or chance, or every fair in the line above, or to the effect of nature39。s changing course? KDJ adds a ma after course, which probably has the effect of directing the word towards all possible antecedents. She points out that nature39。s changing course could refer to women39。s monthly courses, or menstruation, in which case every fair in the previous line would refer to every fair woman, with the implication that the youth is free of this cyclical curse, and is therefore more perfect.9. But thy eternal summer shall not fade, Referring forwards to the eternity promised by the ever living poet in the next few lines, through his verse.10. Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow39。st,　Nor shall it (your eternal summer) lose its hold on that beauty which you so richly possess. ow39。st = ownest, possess.　By metonymy we understand 39。nor shall you lose any of your beauty39。.11. Nor shall death brag thou wander39。st in his shade,　Several half echoes here. The biblical ones are probably 39。Oh death where is thy sting? Or grave thy victory?39。 implying that death normally boasts of his conquests over life. And Psalms .: 39。Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil 39。 In classical literature the shades flitted helplessly in the underworld like gibbering ghosts. Shakespeare would have been familiar with this through Virgil39。s account of Aeneas39。 descent into the underworld in Aeneid Bk. VI.12. When in eternal lines to time thou grow39。st,　in eternal lines = in the undying lines of my verse. Perhaps with a reference to progeny, and lines of descent, but it seems that the procreation theme has already been abandoned.　to time thou grow39。st you keep pace with time, you grow as time grows.13. So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, For as long as humans live and breathe upon the earth, for as long as there are seeing eyes on the eart.14. So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.　That is how long these verses will live, celebrating you, and continually renewing your life. But one is left with a slight residual feeling that perhaps the youth39。s beauty will last no longer than a summer39。s day, despite the poet39。s proud boast.