The Place 2 Be: Shakespeare's Sonnets

Critique of Sonnet 18

SHAKESPEARE’S SONNETS

Theme: Beauty
Content: A brilliant and famous sonnet comparing his subject's eternal beauty to the transient beauty of nature.

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date.

"Shall I compare you to the beauty of nature which you better by being milder and lasting longer?"

Having alluded in earlier sonnets to the temporary lease that the subject has on his beauty, the author now assigns that temporary lease to summer.

The summer's day in line 1 extends to the month of May in line 3 and then extends to the whole season of summer in line 4.

There are several alliterations to this sonnet that contribute to the poem's quality: Sh threads through the poem, here with Shall, shake and short; To also, here with to and too; Lo also, here with lovely.

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;

"Nature is imperfect, with too hot a sun, too low a light."

Pun on summer-time in Sometime and sometime, phonetically resembling the word summer but also alluding to summer only being some time rather than the eternity that the subject represents.

Sh alliteration continues with shines.

To alliteration continues with too.

But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,
Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st.

"But you are an eternal and perfect shining summer who will keep that beauty you have been leased by nature that will live evermore in my verse."

The subject's lease on beauty in earlier sonnets now becomes something that the subject will have permanent possession of.

The rough winds that shake beauty in Q1 now morphs to death's shade.

Sh alliteration continues with shall, shall and shade.

To alliteration continues with to.

Lo alliteration continues with lose.

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

"Forever you will be remembered in my verse."

The rough winds of Q1 contrast with the breathe of future generations.

To alliteration concludes with to.

Lo alliteration concludes with long and long.

A couplet comprising only of monosyllablic words.