Interpretive Essay

In Shakespeare’s collection of poems, the four seasons (spring, summer, autumn, and winter) not only represent divisions of the year, but they are also metaphors for broader themes. Summer, in particular, appears in over ten sonnets. It is in “Sonnet 18” three times, twice in “Sonnet 5”, and once in sonnets 6 and 12. The usages of “summer” in the poems can be categorized into two definitions: the second and warmest season of the year, or relating to the season (such as a product of summer). However, the symbolism of summer isn’t quite so simple, until it’s contrasted with winter, the last and coldest division of the year, the symbolism becomes clearer. Summer represents liveliness and beauty (i.e. grass, flowers, and attractive scents) and winter represents death. The seasons represent the broader theme of the indisputability of time. And this metaphor shows that nothing can stop summer from turning into winter. What does this tell the reader about time? Perhaps that nothing can stop it? The word “summer” is of mixed origin. It has roots in Old English (“sumor”), Old Frisian (“sumur”), Old Norse (“sumar”), and more. The first usage of it meaning the season appeared in c825, while it’s first usage denoting a relation to the season of summer appeared in c1300. “Sonnet 5”, the first poem with “summer” in it, is about the speaker comparing the young man (a major character in Shakespeare’s poems, a physical representation of youth and beauty) to the season of summer and its flowers. He suggests that although summer ends, its beauty lives on through winter, “For never-resting time leads summer on/ To hideous winter, and confounds him there” (5-6), by the distillation of its flowers into oils or perfumes, shown in lines 9-10, “Then, were not summer’s distillation left/ A liquid prisoner pent in walls of glass”. Essentially, “Sonnet 5” suggests that tyrants destroy beauty, and time (like a tyrant) causes the warmest season to turn into the coldest and if not for