Sonnet 18This sonnet is by far one of the most interesting poems in the book. OfShakespeare’s sonnets in the text, this is one of the most moving lyric poemsthat I have ever read. There is great use of imagery within the sonnet.
This isnot to say that the rest of the poems in the book were not good, but this to mewas the best, most interesting, and most beautiful of them. It is mainly due tothe simplicity and loveliness of the poem’s praise of the beloved woman thatit has guaranteed its place in my mind, and heart. The speaker of the poem openswith a question that is addressed to the beloved, “Shall I compare thee toa summer’s day?” This question is comparing her to the summer time of theyear. It is during this time when the flowers are blooming, trees are full ofleaves, the weather is warm, and it is generally thought of as an enjoyable timeduring the year. The following eleven lines in the poem are also dedicated tosimilar comparisons between the beloved and summer days.
In lines 2 and 3, thespeaker explains what mainly separates the young woman from the summer’s day:she is “more lovely and more temperate. ” (Line 2) Summer’s days tendtoward extremes: they are sometimes shaken by “rough winds” (line3)which happens and is not always as welcoming as the woman. However in line 4,the speaker gives the feeling again that the summer months are often to short bysaying, “And summer’s lease hath too short a date. ” In the summerdays, the sun, “the eye of heaven” (line 5), often shines “toohot,” or too dim, “his gold complexion dimmed” (line 6), that isthere are many hot days during the summer but soon the sun begins to set earlierat night because autumn is approaching.
Summer is moving along too quickly forthe speaker, its time here needs to be longer, and it also means that thechilling of autumn is coming upon us because the flowers will soon be withering,as “every fair from fair sometime declines. ” (Line 7) The finalportion of the sonnet tells how the beloved differs from the summer in variousrespects. Her beauty will be one that lasts forever, “Thy eternal summershall not fade. ” (Line 9), and never end or die.
In the couplet at thebottom, the speaker explains how that the beloved’s beauty will accomplish thiseverlasting life unlike a summer. And it is because her beauty is kept alive inthis poem, which will last forever. It will live “as long as men canbreathe or eyes can see. ” (Line 13)On the surface, the poem is on thesurface simply a statement of praise about the beauty of the beloved woman andperhaps summer to the speaker is sometimes too unpleasant with the extremes ofwindiness and heat that go along with it.
However, the beloved in the poem isalways mild and temperate by her nature and nothing at all like the summer. Itis incidentally brought to life as being described as the “eye ofheaven” with its “gold complexion”. The imagery throughout thesonnet is simple and attainable to the reader, which is a key factor inunderstanding the poem. Then the speaker begins to describe the summer againwith the “darling buds of May” giving way to the ” summer’slease”, springtime moving into the warmth of the summer.
The speaker thenstarts to promise to talk about this beloved, that is so great and awing thatshe is to live forever in this sonnet. The beloved is so great that the speakerwill even go as far as to say that, “So long as men breathe, or eyes cansee,” the woman will live. The language is almost too simple when comparingit to the rest of Shakespeare’s sonnets; it is not heavy with alliteration orverse, and nearly every line is its own self-contained clause, almost every lineends with some punctuation that effects a pause. But it is this that makesSonnet18 stand out for the rest in the book.
It is much more attainable tounderstand and it allows for the reader to fully understand how great thisbeloved truly is because she may live forever in it. An important theme of thesonnet, as it is an important theme throughout much of the poetry in general, isthe power of the speaker’s poem to defy time and last forever. And so by doingthis it is then carrying the beauty of the beloved down to future generationsand eventually for al of eternity. The beloved’s “eternal summer”shall not fade precisely because it is embodied in the sonnet: “So long asmen can breathe or eyes can see,” (line 13) the speaker writes in thecouplet, “So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. “(Line 14)With this the speaker is able to accomplish what many have done in poetry andthat is to give the gift of an eternal life to someone that they believe isspecial and outshines everyone else around them. Perhaps it is because of aphysical beauty that the speaker see, but I believe that it is more because ofthe internal beauty as seen in line 2, “Thou art more lovely and moretemperate”, that the beloved is deserving to live on forever.
