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Sonnet 18 Essay, Research Paper

SONNET 18

William Shakespeare?s Sonnet 18 is one of one hundred fifty four poems of fourteen lines

written in Iambic Pentameter. These sonnets exclusively employ the rhyme scheme, which has

come to be called the Shakespearean Sonnet. The sonnets are composed of an octet and sestet

and typically progress through three quatrains to a concluding couplet. It also contains figurative

language and different poetic devices used to create unique effects in his sonnets.

Shakespeare?s sonnets consist of words constructed in a certain manner or form, thoughts,

emotion and poetic devices. One way to interpret the sonnet is to think of ?thee? that

Shakespeare is referring to as a person. Following that line of thought the sonnet could read that

Shakespeare is in love with someone who is consistently beautiful. He tries to compare this

person to summer but summer is not as beautiful or constant. This person in Shakespeare?s eyes

will never grow old and ugly and not even Death can say that his person?s end is near.

In line 1, he starts the poem with a question. He asks if he should compare the person to

a summer?s day but ends up not doing so realizing that the person is superior. In the following 7

lines of this sonnet, he begins to show the differences between the person and a summer?s day.

He explains that the person?s characteristics is moderate and comfortable and has favorable

qualities in line 2. ?Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,? (line 3) means that the

rough winds of the summer can destroy the buds of the flowers and his particular person has no

such trait. In the forth line of the sonnet, Shakespeare justifies how summer is too short and

how his lover?s beauty does not end like this specific season does. In the next two lines, lines 5

and 6, the superb poet interpret the summer?s temperature. He explains how the summer can be

extremely hot and uncomfortable. He also describes how the sun can be dulled due to the

covering of clouds. It can obscure or shadow the earth, unlike the shining beauty of his lover.

Although Sonnet 18 is an extended metaphor, line 7 has a literal meaning that explains itself:

?And every fair from fair sometime declines,? With fair meaning beautiful, he is saying that

everything that is beautiful must come to an end and that all beauty fades except the one of his

lover. The next line is an example of the reasons why beauty fades. Chance makes beauty fade

by something dreadful happening. He says that natures changing course untrimmed meaning

that the seasons changing direction, path or time can deteriorate beauty.

In line 8, the turning point of the sonnet, Shakespeare specifies that something is

changing by using the simple word But. He goes on to explain that the person?s beauty will not

die. He itemizes eternal to mean that the person?s charm will live forever. You are not going to

lose possession of that beauty that you own, Shakespeare explains in line 10. In the eleventh line

of the sonnet, he says that Death won?t be able to brag that he has possession of the persons

beauty. In other words, the beloved will never die. At the end of the sonnet, he writes about

?eternal lines? which symbolizes that the beloved?s beauty will grow in this poem forever. In

the last two lines of this poem, lines 13 and 14, the poet means that as long as people read this

poem, that the beloved?s beauty will live. He also describes how the person will live in the spirit

and beauty of the poem. It could also represent the poem itself, which keeps the person beautiful

forever.

This sonnet has a basic form or structure. In this sonnet there are fourteen lines

divided into two clear parts, an opening octet which has 8 lines and a closing sestet which has 6

lines with a fixed rhyme scheme: ababcdcdefefgg. The octave presents the narrative, states the

proposition or raises a question. The sestet drives home the narrative by making an abstract

comment, applies the proposition, or solves the problem. In Sonnet 18 the octave says that the

beloved is better than a summers day. It develops the idea of this sonnet. The sestet then

explains why the beloved is better than a summer?s day. The sestet also states that the lover will

live forever. Instead of the octave and sestet divisions, this sonnet characteristically embodies

four divisions. Three quatrains of four lines each with a rhyme scheme of its own, and a rhymed

couplet. In this case, the rhyme scheme of the quatrains is: abab cdcd efef gg. The couplet

at the end is usually a commentary on the foregoing.

Some types of poetic devices that are frequently used in this love poem are meter, rhyme,

assonance, consonance, repetition, end & internal rhyme and alliteration. Meter is a sort of up

down bouncy ball type of sound that goes along with the line of poetry. It has accents and

unaccented syllables. Alliteration works by repeating one or more letters at the beginning of a

word throughout a line. Some examples of alliteration (shown in italics in the sonnet above) in

this sonnet is spread out in all fourteen lines. Words like shall summers, thee to, thou

temperate, art and, more more, do darling, and all a, summers short, sometime shines, too the,

hot heaven, fair from fair, summer shall and time thou are all examples of alliteration.

Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds. Examples of assonance (shown in bold in the

sonnet above) are spread throughout

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