In Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18, the author cleverly refers to the passing of time with images of nature and the seasons. He uses a summer’s day as an image for how short-lived youth and love can be. Let me scrutinize the poem.
The speaker initiates the poem with a rhetorical question: “ Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” This question is comparing his beloved to the summer time of the year. It is during this time when the flowers are blooming, trees are full of leaves, the weather is warm, and it is generally thought of as an enjoyable time during the year. The writer, in the following lines, explains what mainly separates the young woman from the summer’s day: she is “more lovely and more temperate”(line 2). He
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He further asserts that his beloved will neither become less beautiful, nor even die, because she is immortalized through his poetry. I personally believe that it is because of her internal beauty “Thou art more lovely and more temperate”(line 2), that the writer believes his beloved deserves to live on forever. The writer explains how the beloved’s beauty will accomplish this everlasting life unlike a summer. These last two lines further clarify the theme. Her beauty will be one that lasts forever, “Thy eternal summer shall not fade” (line 9). argues that the wind may spoil the beauty of summer, which is not always as welcoming as the woman. This poem allows for the reader to fully understand how great this beloved is because she may live forever in the poem. And her beauty will last forever because it is kept alive in this poem. In the third quatrain of the sonnet, the writer tells how the beloved differs from the summer in various respects. She, unlike summer, will never deteriorate. The speaker gives the gift of an internal life to someone he believes is special and outshines everyone else around him. The language is almost too simple when comparing it to some other Shakespeare’s sonnets; it is not full of alliterations, and nearly every line is its own self-contained clause: almost every line ends with some punctuation that leads to a pause. The sonnet concludes with the couplet, “So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, / So long lives this, and this gives life to thee”.
The imagery throughout the sonnet is simple and attainable to the reader, which is a key factor in understanding the poem.
Approximate Word count =
506
Approximate Pages =
2 (250 words per page double spaced)
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