Shakespeare’s sonnet has the same theme as Sonnet 75 by Spenser: the poet makes his beloved immortal by means of his poetry. This theme is a conventional one in Elizabethan sonnets. But Shakespeare and Spenser treat it in an original and individual manner. Spenser starts from a concrete situation and uses dialogue to make his point. Shakespeare writes a monologue in the form of an address. It contains a carefully reasoned argument which, as in many of Shakespeare’s sonnets, moves in a series of steps. The first line, a question, proposes a comparison between Shakespeare’s beloved and a summer season.
Summer is chosen because it is lovely and pleasant. In the second line the comparison is restricted: in outward appearance and character the beloved person is more beautiful and less extreme than summer. The reasons for the restriction are given in the next four lines which describe the less pleasant aspects of summer. In the seventh and eighth lines Shakespeare complains that every beauty will become less one day. The ninth line takes up the comparison with summer again: summer has by now become the summer of life. The comparison turns into a contrast by referring back to the seventh.
The poet’s assurance becomes even firmer in lines eleven and twelve, which contain a promise that death will be conquered. ‘Eternal lines’ refers to lines of poetry but also suggest lines of shape. It points forward to the triumphant couplet which explains and summarizes the theme: poetry is immortal and makes beauty immortal. Because of the step by step arguments Shakespeare’s conclusion makes the impression of great certainty. His method is more rational and logical than Spenser’s. Spenser does not try to argue or prove his theme.
Shakespeare wrote a series of sonnets, most of which were probably addressed to a noble young man for whom he felt deep love and admiration. In many of them he deals with the problem of time, sometimes optimistically as in the present sonnet, sometimes in a mood of despair. Essay on Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 William Shakespeares Sonnet 18 is part of a group of 126 sonnets Shakespeare wrote that are addressed to a young man of great beauty and promise. In this group of sonnets, the speaker urges the young man to marry and perpetuate his virtues through children, and warns him about the destructive power of time, age, and moral weakness.
Sonnet 18 focuses on the beauty of the young man, and how beauty fades, but his beauty will not because it will be remembered by everyone who reads this poem. Shakespeare starts the poem with a metaphoric question in line one asking if he should compare the man to a summers day. This asks if he should compare the beauty of a summers day to the beauty of the young man about whom Shakespeare is writing. Line two of this poem states Thou art more lovely and more temperate. Temperate is used as a synonym for moderate by the author. In line two the speaker is describing the man as more lovely and more moderate than a summers day.
This emphasizes the mans beauty and how the man is viewed by the speaker. Line three, Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, tells why the mans beauty is greater than that of a summers day. Shakespeare uses rough winds to symbolize imperfections. The speaker is implying that there are no imperfections in the young man, but there are in the summer, so the man cannot be compared to a summers day. In line four the speaker adds to this thought by saying that the summer also does not last as long as the mans beauty therefore it cannot be compared to it. Line five states another imperfection of the summer.
Shakespeare uses the eye of heaven as a metaphor in this line to describe the sun. In line six Shakespeare uses the phrase gold complexion dimmed to describe the sun again which means that sometimes the sun is not hot enough, and that, as said in line five, sometimes the sun is too hot. In lines seven and eight the speaker ends the complication by describing how nature is never perfect. Line nine starts the resolution of the poem by using the conjunction but. Eternal summer in line nine is referring back to the mans eternal beauty, using summer to symbolize beauty, and saying that the mans beauty will never fail like the summers beauty.
In lines ten, eleven, and twelve the speaker says that the man, When in eternal lines to time thou growst (line 12) or when he grows old, will not lose possession of what is fair to him, and Nor shall Death brag thou wanderst in his shade (line 11) or he will not be poor in health and close to dying. Lines thirteen and fourteen say that as long as this poem is read, the mans beauty will never go away, because every time someone reads the poem they will be reminded of his beauty.
This poem that Shakespeare wrote, in the octave, describes how all beauty fades except for the man about whom Shakespeare is writing. The octave also tells of how great the mans beauty is compared to everything else that is beautiful. In the sestet, the poem tells about how the mans beauty stays alive and out lives all other beauty. The poem is written in iambic pentameter. Shakespeare makes use of much symbolism and many other figurative devices in this poem that contribute and emphasize to the overall theme of the poem.
