Marinda Hsu
2016.05.19
English ll
Mrs. Guarino
Sonnet 18 Analysis
Sonnet 18 is one of most famous poems within all 154 sonnets written by William Shakespeare. This poem is written in old English; therefore, many words are not what we could found easily in a normal dictionary. It is a lovely poem about his lover, how he viewed her and how she will be forever beautiful in his heart. This poem also shows how Shakespeare wanted this beauty of his lover to be immortal within his poem, which in another way, also hoping that this poem could be existing and being read as long as possible. The starting of the poem comparing his lover with summer, could mean more than just summer time but also spring, what was wanted to be present includes the warm and loveliness during both spring and summer time. Other than the lovely part about this poem, a doubt and question was given to the poem. As people have known, this poem was originally given to noble young man in between the age of 20. Also, summer was often used to describe man within the age of 30, 40 and spring used to describe youth. Therefore during the line where it writes “Darling buds of May”, some readers refers what was wanted to present should more likely be as spring than summer. Later on, other readers thought that this poem could also be a homosexual poem; Overall, different views about Sonnet 18 were given. Sonnet 18 is a poem by Shakespeare describing the beauty of his lover and his desire wanting her to keep her loveliness long living, it uses rhyme scheme and other literal devices to create this poem into a fluent poem with matching meters.
William Shakespeare compares her to something that is beautiful or warm, and says that she is even more precious comparing to it. For example, “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day” means shall I compare you to a summer’s day, but on the next line he wrote that she is even more lovely and constant than a summer’s day. Later on, he writes that even though by nature or by random, beautiful things could be taken away or faded, but, the beauty and youth of hers, won’t. According to this quote saying “But thy eternal summer shall not fade, nor lose possesion of that fair thou ow’st, nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade” this refers to how because he have written this poem that won’t die, and as long as this poem exists, she will live and keep her beauty forever. The meaning of Sonnet 18 is to show his love and a heart wanting to protect his lover. He tried to compares and describes her preciousness and glamorous within this poem. His reluctant to give up his lover. Overall, this poem is describing his lover’s beauty that he wanted to keep immortal. He wanted her to be remembered and long-living, in another way of saying, in his point of view and his heart, she will stay as beautiful and as young even though time have passed and over time, she will still stay the same in her best condition.
Some literary devices being used in Sonnet 18 are personification, meter, rhyme, metaphor, comparison and repetition. But first of all, it is a sonnet, which contains 14 lines. The rhyme scheme for Sonnet 18 is: a b a b c d c d e f e f g g, with words like day-may, temperate-date, shines-declines, dimm’d-untrimm’d, and fade to shade. All of the ending word in each sentences have the same rhyme with the next next sentence’s last word. Moving on, In these three lines “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” it uses comparison to compare this person with summer, it also gives the reader different seasons’ description to describe his lover. It first asked if the lover should be compared as a summer then describing her as having more attractive characteristics. The line right after says, “summer’s lease hath all too short a date”, is saying how the summer is way too short comparing to the person’s infinite beauty. Next on, “The eye of heaven” represents the sun, and could be considered as a personification since nor do heaven or the sun have an eye. Another personification in Sonnet 18, will be in the line where he writes “Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade”, obviously death won’t physically grab someone under his shade. Next on, “And often is his gold complexion dimmed; And every fair from fair sometime declines”, these two lines tells how good things and beautiful things (fair) will fade away as time pasts or by chance, coincidence that happens. Comparing to the first few lines, starting from this line “But thy eternal summer shall not fade”, other than describing the person like summer using simile, the person is the summer, which is using metaphor rather than simile. Some repetition words Sonnet 18 has, are summer, thou, fair, and so long that repeats within the lines to create more meter, beat in the poem. In conclusion, Sonnet 18 is a beautiful poem about his lover’s long living beauty deep down he wishes and also a poem with many literal devices being used to present as a fluent, pleasant reading poem.
