TOPIC 3 Sonnet 18 Essay

Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare Essay

William Shakespeare, the well-known English poet and playwright is famous

for his various sonnets, short poems filled with expressive emotions and deep
feelings. Overall, Shakespeare has written 154 sonnets which are thought to be
created in the period between 1592 and 1598 (Introduction to Shakespeare’s
Sonnets par. 2).This paper is focused on one of the most known sonnets of
Shakespeare, the sonnet number 18 which is also known as “Shall I compare thee to
a summer’s day?”
The main theme reflected in the sonnet number 18 is love. The author
expresses his affection to a person he does not name, yet it is suspected that the
mysterious object of the poet’s admiration who is mentioned in most of the other
sonnets is a young man named William Herbert, the Earl of Pembroke (Introduction
to Shakespeare’s Sonnets par. 4). The very first line of the sonnet is a question, the
speaker wonders if he could compare his beloved person to a summer day.
Generally, this seems to be an appropriate comparison since summer is known to be
a beautiful and pleasant time of a year, enjoyed by everyone. Yet, the author has a
different opinion, his view of a summer day is unusual. He mentions number of
negative qualities a summer day has.

First of all, the speaker states that the summer weather can be quite
unpleasant when “Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May” (3). Secondly, the
author notes that summer is rather brief and short-lasting. Thirdly, the poet adds that
“Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines” (5) meaning that the heat of summer
can be simply unbearable and merciless which is definitely a negative characteristic.
Finally, the author underlines the imperfection of summer remarking that it is not
always bright, and from time to time summer days are cloudy with their “gold
complexion dimmed” (6). The speaker lists all of these negative features of summer
in order to answer his initial question and confirm his primary statement where he
admits that the object of his romantic interest is “more lovely and more temperate”
(2) than a summer day.
In the next several lines of the sonnet, the poet reminds the reader that
nothing is eternal, and “every fair from fair sometime declines” (7) meaning that even
the most exceptional beauty tends to go away after a certain amount of time since
this is how our world is – every object and being here goes through stages of birth,
blossom, decline and eventual death, obeying the cyclic nature of life.
Yet, having stated that everything sooner or later loses its beauty, the poet
emphasizes that his beloved is an exception, because their “eternal summer shall
not fade” (9). The poet believes that the person he admires in this sonnet is never
going to lose their fair beauty or even be taken away by death. This statement
seems rather bold, because it looks like the poet is convinced that the object of his
love is going to live forever, which is impossible. The confusion is solved in the end
of the poem where the speaker explains his previous words about the eternal life of
his beloved specifying that what is going to live forever is their beauty and the
memory about this person as it is now imprinted in this sonnet. The poet says: “So
long as men can breathe or eyes can see,/ So long lives this, and this gives life to
thee” (13-14) meaning that the poem he dedicated to the object of his love will serve
as an eternal source of life for them, preserving their beauty and fairness, and
passing the memory about them through generations of people.
The last lines of the sonnet can be rather overwhelming for the contemporary
reader who is encountering the poem more than 400 years after it was first
published. The words of the author who created the poem specifically to preserve
the memory about his beloved person turned out to be a prophesy – the sonnet still
lives today, and it is still very famous and is read and discussed by thousands of
people who pass the memory of the person depicted in this poem through
generations.
It seems that Shakespeare has found the formula of eternal life, he use his
sonnets as the carriers of messages, feelings, emotions and thoughts that practically
served as bottled messages able to travel through an ocean of time and still be able
to deliver their contents. The only difference is that those who throw their bottled
messages into the sea can only hope that their letters will be found by someone one
day, but Shakespeare seems to be very confident about the long lives of his sonnets.
In conclusion, the 18th sonnet by William Shakespeare is the author’s

monologue where he admires his beloved person and states that even a summer
day cannot be a fair comparison for them due to their beauty that, unlike a summer
day, will live forever carried by the poem as long as the humanity can read it.
Works Cited
Introduction to Shakespeare’s Sonnets. Shakespeare-online. 2014. Web.
Shakespeare, William. Sonnet XVIII. 2014. Web.

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Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare Essay

William Shakespeare, the well-known English poet and playwright is famous

In conclusion, the 18th sonnet by William Shakespeare is the author’s

Introduction to Shakespeare’s Sonnets. Shakespeare-online. 2014. Web.

Shakespeare, William. Sonnet XVIII. 2014. Web.

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