Sonnet 18 Essay, Research Paper

This sonnet is by far one of the most interesting poems in the book. Of

Shakespeare’s sonnets in the text, this is one of the most moving lyric poems

that I have ever read. There is great use of imagery within the sonnet. This is

not to say that the rest of the poems in the book were not good, but this to me

was the best, most interesting, and most beautiful of them. It is mainly due to

the simplicity and loveliness of the poem?s praise of the beloved woman that

it has guaranteed its place in my mind, and heart.The speaker of the poem opens

with a question that is addressed to the beloved, "Shall I compare thee to

a summer’s day?" This question is comparing her 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 following eleven lines in the poem are also dedicated to

similar comparisons between the beloved and summer days. In lines 2 and 3, the

speaker explains what mainly separates the young woman from the summer’s day:

she is "more lovely and more temperate." (Line 2) Summer’s days tend

toward 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 by

saying, "And summer?s lease hath too short a date." In the summer

days, the sun, "the eye of heaven" (line 5), often shines "too

hot," or too dim, "his gold complexion dimmed" (line 6), that is

there are many hot days during the summer but soon the sun begins to set earlier

at night because autumn is approaching. Summer is moving along too quickly for

the speaker, its time here needs to be longer, and it also means that the

chilling of autumn is coming upon us because the flowers will soon be withering,

as "every fair from fair sometime declines." (Line 7) The final

portion of the sonnet tells how the beloved differs from the summer in various

respects. Her beauty will be one that lasts forever, "Thy eternal summer

shall not fade." (Line 9), and never end or die. In the couplet at the

bottom, the speaker explains how that the beloved’s beauty will accomplish this

everlasting life unlike a summer. And it is because her beauty is kept alive in

this poem, which will last forever. It will live "as long as men can

breathe or eyes can see." (Line 13)On the surface, the poem is on the

surface simply a statement of praise about the beauty of the beloved woman and

perhaps summer to the speaker is sometimes too unpleasant with the extremes of

windiness and heat that go along with it. However, the beloved in the poem is

always mild and temperate by her nature and nothing at all like the summer. It

is incidentally brought to life as being described as the "eye of

heaven" with its "gold complexion". The imagery throughout the

sonnet is simple and attainable to the reader, which is a key factor in

understanding the poem. Then the speaker begins to describe the summer again

with the "darling buds of May" giving way to the " summer?s

lease", springtime moving into the warmth of the summer. The speaker then

starts to promise to talk about this beloved, that is so great and awing that

she is to live forever in this sonnet. The beloved is so great that the speaker

will even go as far as to say that, "So long as men breathe, or eyes can

see," the woman will live. The language is almost too simple when comparing

it to the rest of Shakespeare?s sonnets; it is not heavy with alliteration or

verse, and nearly every line is its own self-contained clause, almost every line

ends with some punctuation that effects a pause. But it is this that makes

Sonnet18 stand out for the rest in the book. It is much more attainable to

understand and it allows for the reader to fully understand how great this

beloved truly is because she may live forever in it. An important theme of the

sonnet, as it is an important theme throughout much of the poetry in general, is

the power of the speaker’s poem to defy time and last forever. And so by doing

this it is then carrying the beauty of the beloved down to future generations

and eventually for al of eternity. The beloved’s "eternal summer"

shall not fade precisely because it is embodied in the sonnet: "So long as

men can breathe or eyes can see," (line 13) the speaker writes in the

couplet, "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 and

that is to give the gift of an eternal life to someone that they believe is

special and outshines everyone else around them. Perhaps it is because of a

physical beauty that the speaker see, but I believe that it is more because of

the internal beauty as seen in line 2, "Thou art more lovely and more

temperate", that the beloved is deserving to live on forever.