SONNET 71

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 too short a date.

(Sonnet 18)
Có nên chăng ví em như ngày hạ
Khi dịu hiền em muôn phần đẹp hơn
Gió hè khô lay cây cỏ ngậm hờn
Và ngày hè thường trôi qua mau quá

Ta có nên ví nàng với một ngày trời hạ?

Nàng duyên dáng và dịu dàng phần hơn.
Gió tháng Năm lay chồi non nghiêng ngả;
Và mùa hạ chẳng ở lâu bên ta.
 BIOGRAPHY
William Shakespeare was an English poet,
playwright, and actor.

He was born on 26 April 1564 in Stratford-

upon-Avon. His father was a successful local
businessman and his mother was the daughter of
a landowner.
BIOGRAPHY
• Shakespeare is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the
world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and
nicknamed the Bard of Avon.

• He wrote about 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a few other
verses, of which the authorship of some is uncertain. His plays have been translated into
every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other
playwright.
MARRIAGE AND CAREER

• Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway at the

age of 18. She was eight years older than him.

• They had three children: Susanna, and twins

Hamnet and Judith. After his marriage
information about his life became very rare.
MARRIAGE AND CAREER

• But he is thought to have spent most of his time in London writing

and performing in his plays.

• Between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as

an actor, writer, and part-owner of a playing company called the Lord
Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men.
RETIREMENT AND DEATH

• Around 1613, at the age of 49, he retired to Stratford, where he died three years
later.

• Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive. He died on 23 April 1616, at

the age of 52. He died within a month of signing his will, a document which he
begins by describing himself as being in "perfect health". In his will,
Shakespeare left the bulk of his large estate to his elder daughter Susanna.
 a
b Shakespearean sonnet
Quatrain 1 a • 3 quatrains
b
• 1 rhyming couplet
c • Iambic pentameter
Quatrain 2 d • 10 syllables, 5 feet
c • Starts on an unstressed syllable
d
e
Quatrain 3 f
e
f

Rhyming g
g
couplet
Dịch:
Đoản thi tình thứ 71

Đừng than khóc chi khi anh lìa đời

Rồi em nghe tiếng chuông nguyện ảm đạm
Nói mọi người rằng anh đã xa rời
Thế giới, sống với sâu bọ kinh tởm:

Nếu đọc thơ này, xin em chớ nên

Nhớ anh; vì anh yêu em quá đỗi,
Phút giây ngọt ngào cũng nên lãng quên,
Có nhớ anh, rồi em cũng đau khổ.

Một mai biết em xem những vần thơ

Có lẽ anh đã về với bụi cát,
Xin em đừng gọi tên anh mong chờ,
Mà để tình em tan nơi anh mãi;

Vì người đời soi mói vào nỗi đau,

Cười cợt em khi anh về kiếp sau.
SONNET 71
THE SONNET FORM
THE SONNET FORM
SUMMARY
Stop grieving my death as soon as the gloomy sound of the church bell stops ringing to
announce my departure from this lowly world, which is full of disgusting worms.

No, if you read this, don't think of me, since I love you so much that I would rather be
forgotten than cause you any sadness in my absence.

Oh, if, hypothetically speaking, you read this poem when I am, for instance, surrounded by
dirt, don't even utter my name.

Instead, let your love for me perish like I have perished. Otherwise, the living world will
notice your sorrow and will taunt you with the reminder that I'm gone.
 The speaker wants his lover to move on when he dies

QUATRAIN 1
A suggestion here that the lover is already mourning
for him
“No longer mourn for me when I am dead
The mourning should not continue for too long – only
as the funeral bell is tolling
Than you shall hear the surly sullen bell
Note the use of alliteration here – s sound
The bell is personified as surly and sullen
Give warning to the world that I am fled

Alliteration – w and alliteration – v The word “vile” and “vilest” tell us something about
From this vile world, with vilest worms to dwell:”the attitude of the speaker
 In the first four lines of ‘Sonnet 71,’ the
QUATRAIN 1 speaker begins by telling the beloved what this
person should do after the speaker dies.
It’s going to happen one day, as the focus on
“No longer mourn for me when I am dead
time in previous stanzas has proven. The
Than you shall hear the surly sullen bell beloved should only mourn as long as the
Give warning to the world that I am fled “surly sullen bell,” which marks the speaker’s
From this vile world, with vilest worms to dwell:” funeral, is ringing.
The bell will ring out in order to “Give
Stop mourning for me immediately after my funeral warning to the world” that the speaker is gone
and has entered into a new world where it is
Ring the death bell to let everyone know that I have died:
less “vile” but he dwells with the “vile”
worms.
 QUATRAIN 1
Once the sound has faded away, so too
“No longer mourn for me when I am dead should the beloved’s grief. This brief
Than you shall hear the surly sullen bell
period of mourning is more than
Give warning to the world that I am fled
From this vile world, with vilest worms to dwell:” enough for the speaker who cares more
for the beloved’s happiness than his
own memory.
 QUATRAIN 2
Synecdoche “line” for the whole poem
“ hand” is s a symbol for the whole poet

“Nay, if you read this line, remember not

The hand that writ it; for I love you so,

The speaker would rather be forgotten than

That I in your sweet thoughts would be forgot, to make hos love sad through thinking of him

If thinking on me then should make you woe.”

 QUATRAIN 2 In the next four lines of ‘Sonnet 71,’ the speaker
tells the beloved that in the future when the
speaker is dead and the beloved is reading the lines
“Nay, if you read this line, remember not
that the speaker wrote, he hopes she won’t
The hand that writ it; for I love you so,
That I in your sweet thoughts would be forgot, remember him. Rather, the beloved should take
If thinking on me then should make you woe.” simple pleasure in the lines themselves without
worrying about who wrote them or where this

If you read this poem, don't remember me, because I love you person is now. The speaker doesn’t want the youth
so much,
to think about him and “woe” or feel sorrow

That I don't want you to remember me if it causes you pain.

 QUATRAIN 3

“O, if, I say, you look upon this verse

Body decomposed and turned to clay

When I perhaps compounded am with clay,

Do not so much as my poor name rehearse,

But let your love even with my life decay;” The lover’s love should wither away in the
same way as the speaker’s body would
decay
 QUATRAIN 3 In the final six lines of ‘Sonnet 71’, the speaker’s words
take on a semi-colloquial diction. Shakespeare uses the
phrase “O if, I say,” to mimic his speaker’s
“O, if, I say, you look upon this verse
contemplation on the subject of death. He thinks of the
When I perhaps compounded am with clay,
beloved and tells her that when he’s dead the youth is
Do not so much as my poor name rehearse,
reading “this verse,” or this particular poem, that she
But let your love even with my life decay;”
should not “rehearse” or speak the speaker’s name.

But if you do read this poem when I am dead, It should be lost in the “clay” as the speaker’s body is.
The speaker wishes that the beloved would let the “love”
Don't even repeat my name; but let your love die with me;
the youth holds for him “decay” along with the speaker’s
corpse.
 Couplet sums up the poem
COUPLET
Alliteration In the final two lines of the sonnet, the speaker
Lest the wise world should look into your moan,
says that if the beloved doesn’t do this, then the
And mock you with me after I am gone.
world will use the speaker against him. In one way
or another, which Shakespeare does not make
Otherwise, people will figure out why you are mourning, and
clear, the speaker will be used to “mock” the youth
make fun of your for being my friend.
or control him in some way. This is something that
the speaker would like to avoid for the sake of the
the beloved
“SONNET 71: NO LONGER MOURN FOR ME
WHEN I AM DEAD” THEMES

Theme: Love, Mourning, and Moving on

In “Sonnet 71,” the speaker urges a lover not to dwell on the speaker's death
and to instead move on with life once the speaker is gone. Failing to do so,
the speaker argues, will only bring misery and pain. As such, the speaker
prioritizes the lover’s happiness above any desire the speaker might have to
be honored in memory. The poem treats this as a deeply romantic gesture, one
that demonstrates the speaker's understanding that the lover will have to
forget about the speaker in order to lead a fulfilling a life.
Indeed, the speaker says, “let your love even with my life decay,” actively telling the
lover to let all of their romance deteriorate in the interest of moving on. This, it
seems, is how much the speaker cares about the lover—so much that the idea of
completely fading from memory after death is tolerable as long as it makes the
lover’s life easier.

On the whole, then, the speaker emerges as someone who only wants the best for a
dear loved one, deeply aware of the fact that dwelling on past romance can make it
difficult for a person to lead a happy life. In turn, “Sonnet 71” demonstrates not only
that moving on after loss is hard but necessary, but also that putting a romantic
partner’s happiness above all else is sometimes the most profound and enduring
expression of love.
THE INEVITABILITY OF DEATH AND DECAY

“Sonnet 71” mainly focuses on love, but it's also a meditation on the
inevitability of death. Rather than resenting mortality, the speaker tries to
accept that there’s no way to avoid death. In fact, the speaker is fairly
unemotional when it comes to the inevitable prospect of leaving the world of
the living behind.
THE INEVITABILITY OF DEATH AND DECAY

In describing the living world itself as “vile,” the speaker even suggests that
dying will free the speaker from the nasty and unpleasantness of life. The
speaker perhaps presents life as dirty and unglamorous because doing so
makes it easier to embrace the idea of dying; in any case, it's clear that the
speaker recognizes that nothing lasts, and that gradual deterioration is both
natural and unavoidable.
In accepting that life itself is characterized by decline and impermanence, the
speaker is able to face death head on. The speaker urges the lover to do the
same, knowing that feeling sad about the fleeting nature of life is useless.
1. WHAT POINT IS SHAKESPEARE TRYING TO CONVEY?

A. Remember him when he is gone

B. His writing wil long outlive him

C. Forget him when he is gone

3. WHY DOES SHAKESPEARE WANT O BE FORGOTTEN?

A. He will continue to get mocked

B. He wants future generation to express themselves through

writing

C. His memory will bring too much sadness

4. SHAKESPEARE BELIEVES THE WORLD TO BE …

A. vile

B. cruel

C. disgusting
5. “LET YOUR LOVE WITH MY LIFE DECAY” IS WHAT
DEVICE?

A. simile

B. synecdoche

C. metaphor
6. IMGAGES OF DEATH EMPHASIZES:

dwelling with … worms

coumpounded with … clay

Suggest death as a …decaying process

7. 1ST QUATRAIN: SPEAKER TELLS HIS FRIENDS NOT TO … FOR
HIM NO LONGER THAN THE TIME IT TAKES THE … TO RING

mourn

death bell
8. 2ND QUATRAIN: FRIENDS SHOULD FORGET THE
SPEAKER IF HE/SHE DOES WHAT?

reads the poem because reading the poem will be painful

9. 2ND QUATRAIN: THE SPEAKER WOULD RATHER BE …
THAN CAUSE GRIEF

Forgotten
10. 3RD QUATRAIN: THE SPEAKER ASKS HIS LOVER NOT
TO SAY HIS NAME IF HE/ SHE DOES WHAT?

If the beloved should read the poem, but love dies

11. COUPLET: THE WORLD WILL … IF THE LOVER
GRIEVES FOR HIM?

Laugh, mock
VISUAL STORYBOARD
Students break into small groups and are provided with art supplies (or digital tools).

They work together to create a storyboard, with each panel representing a quatrain or
idea from the sonnet.

Groups present their storyboards