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Sonnet 18 Shakespeare

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In "Sonnet 18" by Shakespeare the speaker poses a question to himself as to how to best immortalize his beloved subject. At first he compares his love to a summer's day, which the speaker sees as most beautiful. However, he finds the metaphor imperfect so he decides through internal debate and poetic expression that the best way to immortalize his love is through his own poetry. This method eternalizes both his love for her and her beauty in written words. By exploring the contrast between the subject's beauty and a summer's day, the author proves that love can withstand the course of time. The line "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day" (1) opens the speaker's debate with a comparison between his love and the season of summer; the author questions whether the beloved subject should be compared to a summer's day. In the consequent lines, the narrators begins to compare his subject to a "summer's day" and answer the question posed in line one, and right away makes the point that the subject is superior to summer, with the line "thou art more lovely and more temperate" (2). The faults of summer continue to be proven with phrases such as "rough winds" which describe summer's temporary nature. Unlike summer, "rough winds" do not shake the subject's beauty .The examples made regarding summer in the first quatrain show that summer's beauty does not last forever, it is merely a time of year that passes within a short period of time . Each subsequent comparison between his lover and the summer fails in immortalizing his lover's beauty as each comparison is imperfect in describing her beauty, which will fade in time: "And every fair from fair sometimes declines" (7) The sun is described as "the eye of the heaven", showing that even something as powerful as the sun is still second to the subject of the poem (5). The author continues to explore the faults of summer, "And often is his gold complexion dimmed/And every fair from fair sometimes declines." (6). By restating the word "and" at the begging of these two lines, attention is drawn to the content and also to the flaws of summer. These lines show that the sun is often dimmed by clouds and every beauty that nature has often declines with the changing seasons and the passage of time. The subject's beauty is not "dimmed" as the sun's glory is sometimes dimmed. Therefore, the subject's beauty is put in a grander light and position. The last two lines of the first quatrain, along with the whole second quatrain explain why the subject cannot be compared to a summer's day. Summer is thus an imperfect season, but his love is not In the final quatrain, the author says "but ..." the subject's beauty shall be an "eternal summer" and shall not fade nor be dimmed unlike the summer, meaning that her beloved beauty and greatness will not fade and change as summer does. This is the turning point in the poem, where the narrator begins to explain that the reason this beloved subject is so much grander than summer, is because the subject will forever live and grow within the lines of the poem. The main purpose of this sonnet is embodied in the end couplet: "So long as men can breathe or eyes can see/So long lives this and this gives life to thee" The author's purpose is to make his love's beauty and, by implication, his love for her, eternal. The repetition of the phrase "So long" puts an emphasis on the true purpose of the poem. It is also the implied "because" of the poem that explains that as long as it can be read, then subject's beauty will live. Summer will always leave, it is the course of nature, and that course can never be changed, but the subject of the poem will never die because as long as the poem lives, so will the subjects beauty. The poem immortalizes the subject of the poem within its lines.

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