How does imagery work? An English tutor’s guide to "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day"...

 Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets, and this is how one of the most famous sonnets in English literature starts:

“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day” 

What does a summer’s day make you think about?  

 Something pleasurable, and something beautiful perhaps?

 So if you had to write about the imagery of this line, you could do it like this:

 “When Shakespeare says ‘Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day’, he wants us to imagine someone who is beautiful an desirable.”

Notice how I include the a quotation in quotation marks, and then I add my interpretation of the imagery.

There are so many easy-to-learn skills to reading and writing about English literature.  As an English literature tutor I love helping people to do better in their studies, and also, I hope, to help them actually enjoy English literature too!

You can find out more about my tutoring services on my About page and contact me via the contact form at the bottom of this page.

My ebook, The Five Sentence Types Workbook, is now available to buy on Amazon for just £2.99, and you can read more about it here.