Beauty Within

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Angelica Fuentes

Professor Batty

English 102
20 September 2017
Beauty Within
In William Shakespeare's sonnet 18 Shall I Compare Thee to a Summers Day ?, he
emphasized his lovers beauty with the way he compares, contrasts, and talks about her flaws.
Shakespeare starts admiring his friend without seeing so he slowly creates a perfect image of her.
The poet tends to hold the purest art throughout the poem that honors the people. In this poem
time and death tends to damage her beauty physically but they cant destroy her completely.
Shakespeare is well known for his metaphors, such as Shall I compare thee to a
summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate (1-2) the poem starts off as a question
and wondering out loud but only accepting to answer this question as a yes. Yet he refuses to
answer the question and begins to explain why. He compares the object of his description is
more lovely and more temperate than a summers day. Lovely is easy and sweet but the
temperate is controllable and not overcome by passion but temperate has a double meaning
of being mild temperate and shakespeare balancing.
Thoughts of a eternal life through the poet's influence this sonnet. Her eternal summer
would outlast all summers allowing in the future. Rough winds do shake the darling buds of
May, And summers lease hath all too short a date, (3-4) the poet begins to use personification
in the use of nature. Mainly the poet is saying summer isn't always a desire but just a bitter and
inhuman days making summer seems too short. The way he describes short summer as if
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summer as agreement with the weather and would end but summer is just one of the four seasons
throughout the year.
Throughout the poem Shakespeare seems to describe summer individually with a lot
different kind of metaphors. For example, Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And
often is his gold...;(5-8) is probably the most important personification that this poem contains.
The eye of heaven refers to the sun as if the sun is too hot, strong, and unpredictable but the
beauty is into another level that cant be compared. However, within the lines the poet is saying
that everything beautiful must eventually fade and come to an it end due to the sake of nature.
Shakespeare ends in conclusion that nature is part of the world and a beautiful thing that
everyone should accept.
Although lines 9 through 12 the poet creates a deeper tone and feeling and returns with a
foreshadowed creating a dramatic scene. But thy eternal summer shall not fade, Nor lose
possession of that fair thou owst, (9-10) meaning that summer and the limitations of nature will
go away but will remain within just like her beauty. Eventually, the poet introduces death and
won't give a chance. For example, Nor shall death brag thou wanders in his shade, When in
eternal lines to time thou growst;, (11-12) shows an example of metaphor meaning that shade
isnt the darkness but shadow of death as it described in the bible's 23rd Psalm. The poet states
that they both will remain living in their heart and he gives life to her throughout the poem, and
claims she will remain immortal.
The poem ends with a twist with the speaker praising his beloved. In the two last lines
Shakespeare mainly talked about his love will be immortal. So long as men can breathe, or eyes
can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee,(13-14) this means as long men live and
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can read this poem then it will keep them alive. In other words, Shakespeare had concluded that
his lover will remain alive throughout this poem has long as people exist.
In Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer Days the theme seems to be in between the
beauty with immortality. The poet explains why the object of affection isn't like summer days
but within beauty. Comparing both the love and feelings that he possess to a summer days. The
speakers intend to compare nature with the physical world. Finally the beloved beauty was so
deep and unstoppable that will remain as long as it is read.
This poem is one of the best and famous sonnet from 154 sonnets that shakespeare had
wrote. Sonnet is consistent of 14 line verse from often in iambic pentameter. This poem is
followed with a rhyme scheme: abab cdcd efef gg and reflects the rhetorical tradition of
Petrarchan sonnet created by an Italian named Giacomo da Lentini. Petrarchan usually discussed
the love and beauty of a beloved just like Shakespeare did. By the the mid-sixteenth century, this
poem got adapted to english.
However, Shakespeare didnt arrange this 154 sonnet into groups but recognized a
pattern. They noticed that the few first sonnet had similar theme about a young man urging to
marry and children. In the other hand sonnet 18 was structured as an argumentative monologue
and comparing beauty and immortality.
As you can see Shakespeare was an intelligent man who had madness of ways to express
this work of art throughout figure language and was a genius in metaphors. In this poem,
Shakespeare shown how he admired his lover's beauty and how beauty never ends even when
aging, because aging is part nature. Shakespeare stated that even when nature gets in between,
nature should be enjoyed and praised while it last. This is because nature makes beautiful thing
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into perfection. As Shakespeare began, talking about summer days and comparing his beloved
compare her beauty and ending with immortality.

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Citations
1. "Sonnet 18." Poetry for Students, edited by Marie Rose Napierkowski and Mary Ruby,
vol. 2, Gale, 1998, pp. 221-233. Gale Virtual Reference Library,
library.lavc.edu:2077/ps/i.do?p=GVRL&sw=w&u=lavc_main&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%
7CCX2691000026&asid=59d3876e8023b52a64cae84632605ec6. Accessed 19 Sept.
2017.
2. Jungman, Robert E. "Trimming Shakespeare's Sonnet 18. (Notes)." ANQ, no. 1, 2003, p.
18. EBSCOhost,
library.lavc.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsglr
&AN=edsgcl.97118046&site=eds-live.

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Fuentes 1

In William Shakespeare's sonnet 18 Shall I Compare Thee to a Summers Day ?, he

of being mild temperate and shakespeare balancing.

throughout the year.

everyone should accept.

claims she will remain immortal.

deep and unstoppable that will remain as long as it is read.

poem got adapted to english.

and comparing beauty and immortality.

compare her beauty and ending with immortality.

vol. 2, Gale, 1998, pp. 221-233. Gale Virtual Reference Library,

7CCX2691000026&asid=59d3876e8023b52a64cae84632605ec6. Accessed 19 Sept.

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