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The poet looks at the beauty of his "fair Friend" and decides that this beauty is ageless. Indeed,
he has known this "Friend" for three years now and believes that she is quite as beautiful as when
he first met her.
Later in the sonnet he does appear to have some hesitation about the lasting impact of aging, but then
concludes rather outrageously that the beauty of this "fair Friend" is beyond even Beauty herself.
ABOUT THE POET
William Shakespeare, commonly known simply as "The Bard", was born in April 1564. Although
he lived a mere 52 years, he has won himself the reputation of being the greatest of all English poets and
playwrights.
He grew up in Stratford-upon-Avon where, at the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway with whom he had
three children. Modern scholars love to question whether or not he was actually gay -- but such is the
energy-sapping research of these scholars.
The Bard established a most successful career for himself in acting and in writing for the stage. Ultimately
he became the part-owner of The Lord Chamberlain's Men, a theatrical company which eventually
came to be known as The King's Men.
In his early years in theatrics, Shakespeare focussed his attention on writing comedies and histories. Only
later did he produce a series of tragedies such as Hamlet, Macbeth and King
Lear, the works for which he is preeminently known.
Although he wrote two lengthy narrative poems as well as several other shorter poems, his reputation as
a poet was established through his amazing collection of sonnets -- 154 in all.
Indeed, his particular style of sonnet, commonly known as the Elizabethan form, is also referred to simply
as "the Shakespearian sonnet".
In about 1613, he returned to Stratford-upon-Avon and died there in April 1616.
Scholars would later come to question not only his sexual stance but also whether or not it was he who
actually wrote all the work attributed to him.
Have you looked at the questions
in the right column?
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TEST YOURSELF!
Read the left column and then answer
the following questions:
THE FORM OF THE SONNET
What type of sonnet is "To me, fair Friend"? How do you know? (4)
[Need help?]
We are looking at an Elizabethan sonnet, are we not? The clue is in the rhyming couplet: all Elizabethan
sonnets end with a rhyming couplet whereas Petrarchan sonnet don't.
The other tell-tale mark is that Elizabethan sonnets can be broken up into three QUATRAINS and a
RHYMING COUPLET whereas Petrarchan sonnets have an OCTAVE and a SESTET.
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What is the theme of the 1st Quatrain? (4)
[Need help?]
The 1st Quatrain states that his "fair Friend" can never get old. If one is presuming that the "fair
Friend" is a person, then the ravages of old age will never affect her. She will maintain her beauty
forever. But how could this possibly be so?
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What is the theme of the 2nd Quatrain? (4)
[Need help?]
There is a problem with the structure of this sonnet because the themes don't really fit exactly into a 1st
Quatrain and a 2nd Quatrain. Rather, the theme of the 2nd Quatrain begins half-way through the first.
The theme of the 2nd (extended) Quatrain is therefore a comparison between his beloved and the four
seasons. Three years have now passed, each with their seasons and yet, despite this, the poet's "fair
Friend" is still as fresh as the day on which he met her.
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What is the theme of the 3rd Quatrain? (4)
[Need help?]
The poet proclaims an element of doubt. He has been stating that his "fair Friend" will never age
and yet, he asks, is that possible? After all, time will always pass and with the passing of time comes the
ravages of age which devours beauty.
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How does the poet finalise his argument in the Rhyming Couplet? (2)
[Need help?]
The poet concludes with what is really an outrageous exaggeration: that no beauty ever existed before
the existence of his "fair Friend".
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"To me, fair Friend, you never can be old,
For as you were when first your eye I eyed
Such seems your beauty still."
- Who is this fair Friend" (4)
[Need help?]
For the moment, let's go along with the idea that the "fair Friend" is perhaps a person well known
to the poet, someone whom he admires or even loves intensely -- or should one say that he was
infatuated with her?
Of course, with modern scholars obsessed with the idea that Shakespeare was perhaps gay, one would
therefore possibly need to conclude that this person was male.
Before you come to any definite conclusions, however, please have a look at the fourth worksheet which
contains questions to blow your mind. This worksheet comes to a very different conclusion as to who the
"fair Friend" might have been.
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- Why would "Friend" have needed the upper-case "F"? (2)
[Need help?]
The upper-case denotes someone or something that is very special. If, indeed, it is a thing, then one can
conclude that the poet is in fact personifying it -- making a person out of it -- and thereby applying some
very special qualities.
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- In what way can this friend "never . . . be old"? (4)
[Need help?]
This is, in fact, a particularly difficult question to answer. Everybody gets old. If the "fair Friend"
is indeed a person, then in what possible way could the poet believe that she -- or maybe he -- will never
get old.
The only solution, surely, is to conclude that the poet is not speaking about the person's physical
appearance which will indeed get old but rather is referring to the person's spiritual nature. In other words,
the person has a spirit which is forever young.
We suggest, however, that you have a look at the fourth worksheet before coming to a definite conclusion.
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- Comment on the play on words in "For as you were when first your eye I
eyed". (4)
[Need help?]
There's a clever play on words here: "when first your eye I eyed". This becomes even more of a
reality when one writes it as Shakespeare would have written it: "when first your eye I ey'd": three
different spellings for the same sound.
What we have here is a clever use of the sound "eye". This is an example of assonance
which is the repetition of vowel sounds within words that are close together.
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- What then does the poet mean when he says, "Such seems your beauty
still"? (4)
[Need help?]
What the poet appears to be saying is that his "fair Friend" is still quite as beautiful as she was on
the very first occasion on which he saw her.
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