Shakespeare’s Sonnet Eighteen is normally regarded as a love poem, but is it? While the speaker is comparing his lover to a summer’s day in Sonnet Eighteen, Shakespeare’s speaker argues that his verse will allow his love to be immortalized, while even the most beautiful of summer days can fade into night. It initially seems that his subject’s beauty will be everlasting, though the speaker then reveals that only his own writing will stand the test of time. Evidence of Shakespeare writing this poem for the purpose of praising himself occurs throughout the entirety of the poem. In the first line, for example, his use of ‘I’ is emphasized by the rhythmic structure whereas the word ‘thee’ is not. This suggests that Shakespeare meant to focus on …show more content…
This themes of beauty is closely related to the overall immortality theme. Sonnet Eighteen is ultimately a response to the question posed in the first line. “The speaker answers this question in the negative, suggesting that the object of his affection is ‘more lovely and more temperate’ than a mere summer’s day. Though summer days are pleasant, they are neither perfect nor everlasting. Their finiteness and propensity for bad weather make them, the speaker argues, as poor comparison with the object of his affection (Napierkowski and Ruby).” The speaker’s use of ‘temperate’ spoken in three syllables is significant, because he will continue to praise the qualities of endurance and consistency over those of change. The speaker uses extreme to emphasize the beauty of the subject: ‘more lovely,’ ‘all too short,’ and ‘too hot,’ but at no point describes the subject’s actual physical features. We are never told any specifics about the subject’s appearance, instead we are told that their beauty is greater than that of a summer’s day and the sun. Then, the speaker gives us a twist by stating that the subject is not as good as a summer’s day, but even better. Shakespeare continues to reinforce this by listing the flaws of summer; the season that has ‘too brutish winds to shake the darling buds of May.’ We are also told how summer is ‘too short,’ thus enforcing an impending mortality in contrast to the immortality being extended to the subject who is being immortalized within the poem. Beauty can fade by chance or through the course of nature. The repetition of ‘fair’ highlights fate’s inescapable hold over everything that possesses beauty. The speaker reaffirms that his subject’s beauty will never fade, but will be preserved within this poem. This self-assured claim leads us to the point that this poem was not actually to pay a beloved a
In some of Shakespeare's Sonnets we the reader can see that he was against the use of cosmetics. Commonly referred to as "painting", we see this sonnet to prove his dislike for the use of beautifying agents. 1-2: 'I never thought, because of the way you appear to me, that you ever needed cosmetics, and therefore, you don't need a cosmetic kit to make you beautiful.' "Set" here can also be read as a verb, as in the drying of the make-up. (Make-up in Elizabethan England was quite different from today's, including some such elements as lead in the composition). 3-4: "Exceed" does refer to "the barren tender", but it wouldn't be inappropriate to infer that Shakespeare is reflecting upon an 'exceeding' amount of cosmetics applied. But better is the 'exceeding in the absent [or of no worth] payments (of flattery) of a poet's debt. "Debt" is taken to mean both the debt that poets have to beauty, as their duty to praise it, and also a pun on monetary deficiency. This then refers back to "tender", meaning both soft and supple as well as currency. All of these words create a theme of finance, perhaps outlining the worth of the addressee. 5: "Report" meaning description. 6-8: 'Because your (still) existing self very well may show just how far a modern quill [writing instrument at the time] comes too short in speaking of your worth, the worth that grows in you'.
This sonnet is exceptional since it portrays a different, a more comical view of the love towards a woman. At the time of Shakespeare, poets usually write about fair ladies with eyes are stars, roses cheeks and melodic voice etc. Here is am example of a typical poem praising the beauty of one’s love: My Lady's hair is threads of beaten gold; (contrast with “the wires grow on her head”) Her front the purest crystal eye hath seen; Her eyes the brightest stars the heavens hold; (contrast with “nothing like the sun”) Her cheeks, red roses, such as seld have been; (contrast with no such roses see I in her cheeks) Her pretty lips of red vermilion dye; (contrast with “coral is far more red than her lips”) Her hand of ivory the purest white; Her blush AURORA, or the morning sky.
First of all, spot can mean two things: 'to discover' and also 'to stain'; therefore, the shame that "you" make can both (at the same time) point out the beauty of your name, that is possibly increasing in popularity; also 'to stain' the beauty of "your" name. Knowing this, we must read the poem twice, one for each possible reading (also notice the floral theme in the first stanza as well). Since he describeds "name" as budding, (and the fragrance of a rose as sweet), "in what sweets" can refer to the "name", and then of course, the person themself. Now, question: [first the analogy of canker being the sins; thus, as the canker destroys the rose, this person's sins destroy his name (and remember! only "name" at this point)] which one?
In "Sonnet 73", the speaker uses a series of metaphors to characterize what he perceives to be the nature of his old age. This poem is not simply a procession of interchangeable metaphors; it is the story of the speaker slowly coming to grips with the finality of his age and his impermanence in time.
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
The two poems do seem to have a similar theme; both are focused around describing the poet’s muse. However, Sonnet 18 is not about love at all—Shakespeare makes no reference to love in the poem; he is merely describing how beautiful this individual is. Sonnet 130, on the other hand, is a true love poem, making direct mention to it in the couplet: “And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare / As any she belied with false compare.” Surprisingly enough, Sonnet 18 shows more the love Shakespeare has for himself and his writing ability. In the last three lines: “When in eternal lines to time thou growest: / So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, / So long lives this and this gives life to thee.” he is basically saying that in his eternal verse his muse will forever live. And although the couplet is sweet, a different approach to its meaning would be: “As long as people can read, they will read my poetry!” Sonnets were created to show-off a poet’s skill and not their love—in Sonnet 18 it is most apparent.
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.
Sonnet 71 is one of 154 sonnets written by William Shakespeare, and although it may rank fairly low on the popularity scale, it clearly demonstrates a pessimistic and morbid tone. With the use of metaphors, personification, and imagery this sonnet focuses on the poet’s feelings about his death and how the young should mourn him after he has died. Throughout the sonnet, there appears to be a continual movement of mourning, and with a profound beauty that can only come from Shakespeare. Shakespeare appeals to our emotional sense of “feeling” with imagery words like vile, dead, be forgot, and decay, and we gain a better understanding of the message and feelings dictated by the speaker.
William Shakespeare was an excellent writer, who throughout his life created well written pieces of literatures which are valued and learned about in modern times. One of his many works are 154 Sonnets, within these Sonnets there are several people Shakespeare “writes to”, such as fair youth, dark lady and rival poet. Sonnet 20 is written to fair youth, or in other words a young man. The idea of homosexuality appears in Sonnet 20 after the speaker admits his love towards the young man.
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.
In William Shakespeare’s sonnet “shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” the audience is introduced to a poem in which he himself goes into depth about the person he is infatuated with. The author does not give any type of hints telling the audience who the poem is towards because it can be for both male and female. That’s the interesting part about William Shakespeare’s work which is to second hand guess yourself and thinking otherwise. Making you think and think rational when you read his work. The sonnet “Shall I compare thee to a summers day” is one of his most famous and published poem. Shakespeare’s tone of voice at the commence of the poem is somewhat relaxed and joyful because he is going on talking about the person he is intrigued by. Throughout the passage Metaphors, similes and imagery can all be found in the poem itself
Thou art more lovely and more temperate" (18.1-2). The first few lines of this sonnet place vivid images in the readers mind about a beautiful and sweet tempered person. Most readers believe this person to be a beautiful woman because of the preconceived notions about the dynamics of love.... ... middle of paper ...
Shakespeare begins this sonnet by telling him he should realize, because of his aging, that it is time to produce a child, for is he does not, he cheats the world, mother earth, who then becomes an unblessed mother. The "mother" also refers to the mother of the would be child--she then being unblessed from the lack of a child. 5-6: 'What part of her, physicall or emotionally, keeps you from friuting her womb through procreation [an act that comes with marriage]?' 7-8: '(If not that reason), are you so narcissistic that you will bring the end of your family to the tomb?'
1-2: 'As fast as time takes hold of you, you do grow (in attributes) as you leave one of yourself [an heir] behind'; or, more generally, 'if you're persuing two things, drop one and you'll increase in that aspect that much more'. 3-4: 'And the children to whom you (would) have given life, you can call your own (self) when you stray from youth'. 5-6: 'Within children (procreation) resides wisdom, beauty and increase (of a good life), however, without children, you are prone to folly, aging and the rest of your life without warming love (of children)'. 7-8: 'If everyone acted as you do in not bearing children, generations would be no more, and the [or your] world would die within (your) sixty years'. 9-10: 'Let those people who Nature decides shall not have heirs perish, because they are "harsh, featureless, and rude"'. 13-14: 'She has you as a stamp (for sealing wax, not the wax itself), and meant for you to reproduce more of yourself through children, and not to let yourself die without not doing so (because life is everlasting through