📖 Reading Literature: Sonnet 18 (Grade 12)

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Read the text. Then answer using details from the text.

Sonnet 18 — William Shakespeare (public domain)

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;

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;

But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

1. To what does the speaker compare the beloved?

2. What flaws of summer does the speaker list?

3. What is "the eye of heaven"?

4. According to the final couplet, how will the beloved’s beauty last?

Theme: State the theme and explain how it develops over the text.

Answer key: 1) a summer’s day · 2) rough winds, too short, too hot, sun dimmed by clouds · 3) the sun (metaphor) · 4) through the poem itself, as long as people read it · Theme: Art can preserve beauty and love beyond the reach of time.

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Worksheets › Grade 12 English › Reading Literature › Reading Literature

Grade 12 (ages 17–18)Reading comprehensionFree printable PDF

About this grade 12 worksheet

Free Grade 12 English worksheet (Common Core RL.11-12.1): read "Sonnet 18" and answer questions about key details, characters and theme. Skill: Key ideas and details in literature. Level: Grade 12 — also suits Year 13 (UK).

For teachers: skills & standards

CCSS RL.11-12.1: Key ideas and details in literature
CCSS RL.11-12.2: Key ideas and details in literature
CCSS RL.11-12.3: Key ideas and details in literature
Works as a morning-work page, a centre/station activity, homework or an early-finisher task.

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What age is it for?

It is designed for Grade 12 (ages 17–18), but use it with any child who is ready.

What skills does it build?

Key ideas and details in literature.

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More “Reading Literature” printables (rl.11-12.1–3: key ideas and details in literature)

Reading Literature: Exit Interview (Grade 12) · Reading Literature: The Translator’s Dilemma (Grade 12) · Reading Literature: Commencement (Grade 12) · Reading Literature: The Clockwork Bird (Grade 12)

All 5 reading literature sheets → · Grade 12 English: all 10 skills → · All Common Core grades

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