Sonnet 18 analysis

Marinda Hsu

2016.05.19

English ll

Mrs. Guarino

                                                                      Sonnet 18 Analysis

        Sonnet 18 is one of 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 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. 

           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. Because as he have written this poem that won’t die, and as long as this poem exists, she will live and keep her beauty forever. 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. 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. The line right after says, “summer’s lease hath all too short a date”, comparing how the summer is way too short comparing to the person’s 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 past or by chances. 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, by using metaphor rather than simile. Some repetition words Sonnet 18 has, are summer, thou, fair, and so long that repeats within the lines.