How to appreciate a poemThe involved points to appreciate a poem:1. Form (rhyme, meter and scheme)2. Structure3. Image4. Language, diction (to solve the meanings of the words and syntactic structure)5. Musical and sound effects6. Theme (subject matter) and toneAppreciating Sonnet 18Shakespearean sonnets collections contains 154 sonnets, commonly thought to be written between 1593 and 1599, which may be roughly divided into three groups.1. Numbers 1-17 are variations on one theme.2. Numbers 18-126 are on a variety of themes associated with a handsome young man.3. After that, began a new series, principally about a married woman with dark hair and complexion, the so-called “dark lady of the sonnets”.赏析It is written in iambic pentameter rhymed abab cdcd efef gg. (3 quatrains, 1 couplet) Shall I /compare/ thee to/ a summ/er’s day?/Thou art/ more lo/vely and/ more tem/perate:/Rough winds/ do shake/ the dar/ling buds /of May,/And sum/er’s lease/ hath all/ too short/ a date:/2. In poetic structure, it can be divided into introducer, developer, modulator, and terminator. (起、承、转、合).3. Image: a summer’s day, rough winds, buds, sun.4. Lease: duration; the eye of heaven: the sun; complexion: appearance;Fair (the first): beautiful appearance; fair (second): beauty. Theme: Lines endows one’s beauty with immortality.6. Shakespeare deals with the traditional themes of time, beauty and poetry and expresses his feelings towards the addressee. The poem is a comparison between the man’s eternal beauty with summer’s temporal beauty, between the inconstancy of nature and the timelessness of poetry. Shakespeare poses the idea that through poetry, beauty gains immortality. This image of transience and eternity is used throughout the poem. More reflections: the theme of homosexual (internet information) Analysis of Sonnet 18Shakespeare’s sonnets, though they are well with the general tradition of Elizabethan sonnet cycles, are in several ways unique. The principle person addressed by the poet is not a woman but a young man; the dark lady, when she appears, is vastly different from the convention. More important, the depths of moral and aesthetic contemplation in Shakespeare’s sonnets are far more profound than we find in other Elizabethan cycle.With 3 exceptions (99, 126 and 154)Shakespeare uses the sonnet in popular English form, first fully developed by Shakespeare varies it. The couplet usually ties the sonnet to one of the general themes of the series, leaving the quatrains free todevelop the poetic intensity which makes the separate sonnets so memorable.Shakespeare’s sonnets constitute a vast landscape of metaphor, surprising often because it seems to anticipate the atmosphere of some of the later plays. In this landscape are some vividly recognizable figures---the poets, the friend, the Dark lady, more indefinite, the rival poet.Death, Be Not ProudDeath, be not proud, though some have called theeMighty and dreadful, for thou art not so,死神，你莫骄傲，尽管有人说你如何强大，如何可怕，你并不是这样；For, those, whom thou think'st, thou dost overthrow,"overthrow" (conquer, overcome)[those whom you think you have conquered]Die not, poor death, nor yet canst thou kill me;你以为你把谁谁谁打倒了，其实，可怜的死神，他们没死；你现在也还杀不死我。
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow,(Sleep is just a picture of death)休息、睡眠，这些不过是你的写照，既能给人享受，那你本人提供的一定更多；And soonest our best men with thee doe goe,"doe goe" = "do go"我们最美好的人随你去得越早Rest of their bones, and soule's deliverie.Deliverie=freedom越能早日获得身体的休息，灵魂的解脱。
(With death, we can rest, and our souls are freed from the body. )Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,Not only does death not conquer us, but death itself is only a tool for -- a "slave to" -- fate (destiny), chance (accident, things that just happen), kings (men who order people to be put to death), and those for whom life is so unbearable, they kill themselves ("desperate men").So death has all these bosses over him whom he must obey你是命运、机会、君主、亡命徒的奴隶，And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,Dwell=liveAnd look at the horrible friends death has! Who wants to be around poison, war, and sickness?你和毒药、战争、疾病同住在一起，And poppie, or charmes can make us sleepe as well,罂粟和咒符和你的打击相比，同样，And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then? (Why do you swell withpride? )"thy stroke" is probably a reference to the Grim Reaper's scythe, that sickle with the huge, nasty-looking curved blade.甚至更能催我入睡；那你何必趾高气扬呢？One short sleepe past, wee wake eternally,(we do “sleep" for a short time, but then we wake up and live forever.)睡了一小觉之后，我们便永远觉醒了，And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.Death himself dies. Once past that short sleep, his so-called victims live eternally and joyfully in heaven, with God.再也不会有死亡，你死神也将死去。