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Essay about Shakespeare Sonnet 18 Analysis
Analysis of Shakespearean Sonnet 18 and130
Analysis of Shakespearean Sonnet 18 and130
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Love is a feeling that is often conveyed through poetry, as poetry is one of the finest ways to express emotion. When William Shakespeare wrote “Sonnet 18”, he used poetry to convey a message of love. “Sonnet 18” is one the most famous sonnets during the Elizabethan Era and is enjoyed in modern times. In this sonnet, it is extremely unclear as to who the speaker is, The speaker could either be William Shakespeare himself, or a character that he created. This sonnet is speaking to the beloved, and in a way, the reader, because the speaker claims that their love is renewed every time this poem is read. “Sonnet 18” is a timeless love poem, that is about the speaker declaring his love for the beloved, explaining that their love will last forever in the lines of the poem (Shmoop Editorial Team). …show more content…
Shakespeare writes in the first line of “Sonnet 18”, “Shall I Compare thee to a Summer’s Day”, setting the tone for the sonnet, explaining that the beloved’s beauty is comparable to a summer’s day. The speaker then goes on to explain that summer is not as fabulous as it seems, the winds shake the buds that emerged in spring, that summer ends too quickly, and the sun can get too hot or can be covered by clouds. The speaker says that everything beautiful eventually fades by chance or by nature’s changes (Shmoop Editorial Team). The last 6 lines of this sonnet declare that his summer will never fade, death will never be able to take the beloved from him as their love lives inside the lines of this
In “Sonnet,” Billy Collins satirizes the classical sonnet’s volume to illustrate love in only “.fourteen lines.” (1). Collins’s poem subsists as a “Sonnet,” though there exists many differences in it, countering the customarily conventional structure of a sonnet. Like Collins’s “Sonnet,” Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 130” also faces incongruities with the classic sonnet form as he satirizes the concept of ideal beauty that was largely a convention of writings and art during the Elizabethan era. Although these poems venture through different techniques to appear individually different from the classic sonnet, the theme of love makes the poems analogous.
When he writes "And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare as any she, belied with false compare." (lines 13-14) in the final couplet, one responds with an enlightened appreciation, making them understand Shakespeare's message that true love consists of something deeper than physical beauty. Shakespeare expresses his ideas in a wonderful fashion. Not only does he express himself through direct interpretation of his sonnet, but also through the levels at which he styled and produced it. One cannot help but appreciate his message of true love over lust, along with his creative criticism of Petrarchan sonnets.
Shakespeare’s sonnets include love, the danger of lust and love, difference between real beauty and clichéd beauty, the significance of time, life and death and other natural symbols such as, star, weather and so on. Among the sonnets, I found two sonnets are more interesting that show Shakespeare’s love for his addressee. The first sonnet is about the handsome young man, where William Shakespeare elucidated about his boundless love for him and that is sonnet 116. The poem explains about the lovers who have come to each other freely and entered into a relationship based on trust and understanding. The first four lines reveal the poet’s love towards his lover that is constant and strong and will not change if there any alternation comes. Next four lines explain about his love which is not breakable or shaken by the storm and that love can guide others as an example of true love but that extent of love cannot be measured or calculated. The remaining lines of the third quatrain refer the natural love which can’t be affected by anything throughout the time (it can also mean to death). In the last couplet, if
Both Sonnets have different styles. Sonnet 18 is a much more traditional poem, showing the reader a picture of his muse in the most divine way. Shakespeare uses a complex metaphor of comparing his subject to the summer, but at the same time making it easy to understand. The poet goes as traditional as possible; his friend surpasses the beauty of summer, as summer will fade and turn to winter. Sonnet 130 is just as easy to understand as the former. The use of straightforward comparisons that go from line to line, instead of one metaphor elaborated through the entire poem, makes this sonnet quite different in style. Sonnet 130, in contradiction to Sonnet 18, purposefully branches off from the traditional romantic love poem for he does not describe the subject as a true beauty but as his true love.
In Sonnet number one-hundred sixteen Shakespeare deals with the characteristics of a love that is “not time’s fool”, that true love that will last through all (Ln: 9). This sonnet uses the traditional Shakespearian structure of three quatrains and a couplet, along with a standard rhyme scheme. The first and third quatrains deal with the idea that love is “an ever-fixed mark”, something that does not end or change over time (Ln: 5). Shakespeare illustrates this characteristic of constancy through images of love resisting movemen...
In Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18, also known as “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” represents and discusses the love and beauty of his beloved. Also, the speaker refers to his love more sweet, temperate, and fair than all the beauty that he can see in nature. He also speaks how the sun can be dim and that nature’s beauty is random: “And often is his gold complexion dimm’d / And every fair from fair sometimes declines” (6-7). At the end of the poem the speaker explains that they beauty of the person that is being mentioned is not so short because, his love with live as long as people are still reading this sonnet. The beauty of his beloved with last longer than nature, because although nature is beautiful flowers and other things still have to die: “So long as men can breathe or eyes can see / so long lives this and this gives life to thee” (13-14) Also, the speaker is comparing his love to a summer’s day, but does not really say anything specific or that the qualities given to his beloved are more superior to a summer’s day, which can allow the reader to understand that his beloved can stay young, beautiful, and never going to die.
In this sonnet, Shakespeare is creating a mental picture of spring and summer to compare against his loved one. He uses the fact that fine and beautiful days are the creation of nature, and nature is constantly changing all the time. Fine days never stay the same: 'rough winds' or the sun obscured by clouds, 'and often is his gold complexion dim'd', can easily mar a fine day. He talks about these negative factors of change in the first eight lines, and Shakespeare then uses these ideas to claim that his loved one will always remain untarnished, speaking of how 'thy eternal summer shall not fade' and how his loved one has lasting qualities that will outshine death: 'Nor shall death brag thou wandr'st in his shade' These thoughts come to a confident, final... ... middle of paper ... ...
In this collection of sonnets, love is basically and apparently everything. It 's very prevalent in each sonnet contained. It 's easy to see that loving her beloved, her husband, is the one of the ways actually knows she exists. She tries to list the many different types of love that she so obviously feels, and also to figure out the many different types of relationships between these vast and different kinds of love. Through her endeavors, this seems to become a new way of thoroughly expressing her admiration and vast affection for her
In “Sonnet XVII,” the text begins by expressing the ways in which the narrator does not love, superficially. The narrator is captivated by his object of affection, and her inner beauty is of the upmost significance. The poem shows the narrator’s utter helplessness and vulnerability because it is characterized by raw emotions rather than logic. It then sculpts the image that the love created is so personal that the narrator is alone in his enchantment. Therefore, he is ultimately isolated because no one can fathom the love he is encountering. The narrator unveils his private thoughts, leaving him exposed and susceptible to ridicule and speculation. However, as the sonnet advances toward an end, it displays the true heartfelt description of love and finally shows how two people unite as one in an overwhelming intimacy.
Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130 depicts that of love still there, but tainted by age and reality. There we in music “A Rose is a Rose”, telling of a mother’s words of wisdom to her daughter where finding love, is not losing who she is; and “Black Bird”, about a love yet to fly due to being forbidden. Both show symbolic ways we can communicate over feelings or perceptions about society, love, and ourselves.
While Shakespeare and Spenser have their own sonnet forms and different rhyme schemes, the topics in which they write about in “Sonnet 18” and “Sonnet 75” possess many similarities. A major theme in both of the sonnets is the idea of immortal love. Both sonnets straightforwardly mention the idea of love eternalizing, defying all of time, and conquering all obstacles. Spenser unmistakably mentions that “whenas death shall al the world subdue, our love shall live, and later life renew”. Correspondingly, Shakespeare declares that his and the subject’s love “shall not fade,” but continue to grow. When it comes to a matter of love defying time, both sonnets remain in synchronization, expressing that even with death, love will go on and remain forever, through poetry and memory. Spenser conveys his lover as one who “shall live by fame”, because through “[his] verse [her] virtues rare shall eternalize”. Evidently, Shakespeare believes that as history writes itself, he and his subject’s love will become one with time because “when in et...
At the time of its writing, Shakespeare's one hundred thirtieth sonnet, a highly candid, simple work, introduced a new era of poems. Shakespeare's expression of love was far different from traditional sonnets in the early 1600s, in which poets highly praised their loved ones with sweet words. Instead, Shakespeare satirizes the tradition of comparing one's beloved to the beauties of the sun. From its opening phrase "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun", shocks the audience because it does not portray a soft, beautiful woman. Despite the negative connotations of his mistress, Shakespeare speaks a true woman and true love. The sonnet is a "how-to" guide to love.
"Shakespeare Sonnet 18 - Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day." Shakespeare-online.com. Amanda Mabillard, n.d. Web. 15 Jan. 2014. .
In “Sonnet 18,” the theme is that what is written in poetry is everlasting; Shakespeare is talking about the beauty of a woman and saying that her beauty will never go away because he is putting it into a poem. He begins the poem by comparing her to a summer day, but then starts talking about how she is much more beautiful. He continues comparing a summer day to his true love and shows how she is much fairer throughout the whole poem. He says, for instance, “But thy eternal summer shall not fade, nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st.” Shakespeare is saying that his true loves beauty will never go away and that she will remain beautiful forever. However, in “Sonnet 130” the theme is more about appearances and how you can love someone, who might not be as beautiful. Throughout the poem, Shakespeare is trying to say the looks are not everything. The only thing he talks about is the way his lady looks; he does not mention her personality. For example, he says “I love to hear her speak, yet well I know that music hath a far more pleasing sound;
As long as mankind can read, people will always know their love. Shakespeare also establishes the concept of eternal love through summer. “But thy eternal summer shall not fade,” (Shakespeare 1173). Summers are eternal, just like his love. Each of the poems also shares the idea of temporary ownership.