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Learn More. "Sonnet 18" is a sonnet written by English poet and playwright William Shakespeare. The poem was likely written in the 1590s, though it was not published until 1609. Like many of Shakespeare's sonnets, the poem wrestles with the nature of beauty and with the capacity of poetry to represent that beauty.
Sonnet 18 is the first poem in the sonnets not to explicitly encourage the young man to have children. The “procreation” sequence of the first 17 sonnets ended with the speaker’s realization that the young man might not need children to preserve his beauty; he could also live, the speaker writes at the end of Sonnet 17, “in my rhyme.”.
Dec 26, 2016 · In this post, we’re going to look beyond that opening line, and the poem’s reputation, and attempt a short summary and analysis of Sonnet 18 in terms of its language, meaning, and themes. The poem represents a bold and decisive step forward in the sequence of Sonnets as we read them. For the first time, the key to the Fair Youth’s ...
- Summary
- Structure and Form
- Detailed Analysis
- Historical Background
- Similar Poetry
Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day? attempts to justify the speaker’s beloved’s beauty by comparing it to a summer’s day and comes to the conclusion that his beloved is better after listing some of the summer’s negative qualities. While summer is short and occasionally too hot, his beloved has an everlasting beauty, and that will never be uncom...
Shakespeare’s ‘Sonnet 18‘ adheres to the classic Shakespearean sonnet structure. It consists of 14 lines divided into three quatrains and a concluding couplet. This structure allows for a logical progression of ideas, with the final couplet serving as a powerful resolution. The poem’s organization reflects the speaker’s evolving thoughts, moving fr...
The poem opens with the speaker putting forward a simple question: can he compare his lover to a summer’s day? Historically, the theme of summertime has always been used to evoke a certain amount of beauty, particularly in poetry. Summer has always been seen as the respite from the long, bitter winter, a growing period where the earth flourishes it...
William Shakespeare was born in 1564 in Stratford-Upon-Avon to an alderman and glover. He is widely regarded as the greatest English writer of all time and wrote 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and 38 plays, though recently, another play has been found and attributed to William Shakespeare. Although much is known about his life, scholars are...
Readers who enjoyed ‘Sonnet 18’ should also consider reading some other William Shakespeare poems. For example: 1. ‘Sonnet 27’ – dwells on exhaustion and hope and how both are associated with a young man. 2. ‘Sonnet 38’ – focuses on the importance of the speaker’s muse, the Fair Youth, and how integral the young man is to the poet’s writing. 3. ‘So...
- Female
- Poetry Analyst
Note the financial imagery ("summer's lease") and the use of anaphora (the repetition of opening words) in lines 6-7, 10-11, and 13-14. Also note that May (line 3) was an early summer month in Shakespeare's time, because England did not adopt the Gregorian calendar until 1752. The poet describes summer as a season of extremes and disappointments.
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date. Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimmed; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimmed; But thy eternal summer shall not fade, Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
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Sonnets 18-25 are often discussed as a group, as they all focus on the poet's affection for his friend. For more on how the sonnets are grouped, please see the general introduction to Shakespeare's sonnets. For more on the theme of fading beauty, please see Sonnet 116. How to cite this article: Shakespeare, William. Sonnet 18. Ed. Amanda Mabillard.
