FREE ESSAY ON SONNET 18 ESSAY

SONNET 18 ESSAY

Shakespeare - Sonnet 18 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.