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Sonnet 18

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Sonnet 18
Sonnet 18 breakdown The poem Sonnet 18 was written by William Shakespeare. A poet from the 17th century who was a renowned writer for his works on theater and poems. Sonnet 18 describes the power of love and immortality of the poem and himself as long as men walk the earth. He gives a message of eternal beauty and love through out the poem with his selective word choices. He describes the beauty of the poem as immortal as long as men breathe, due to the beauty of the poem and love of the men. The poem is effective due to his literary techniques of using metaphors of summer and descriptive language of pathos for his comparisons and surroundings. Shakespeare uses many descriptions of summer, love, and the eternal beauty of the poem. The main comparison of the poem is the beauty of a person and summer. Both are major parts to the argument, which is the poems eternal life. Shakespeare speaks about a person that is more beautiful than summer and uses words to show the struggling times before summer. He uses emotions of death and eternal life to bring out the emotions of the reader and uses descriptions of a perfect summer as a bridge to relate to the person and reader, knowing that summer is the most perfect season. He argues that time changes all things but the beauty of the person will be eternal within the poem itself. William Shakespeare opens up Sonnet 18 with a question “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day” (Shakespeare 1). He does this to compare a person to a summer day which he believes that a summer day is perfect. Shakespeare compares him to summer for the reason that summer is the most beloved and the most beautiful of all the season. The continued verse compares a man to the perfect weather and love of summer while saying he is more beautiful and evenly tempered then summer itself. Using the month of may and strong winds specifically to describe the month before summer, he infers that all the seasons before summer are sad and rough. With


Cited: Shakespeare, William. “Sonnet 18.” Reading Literature and Writing Argument. Custom Edition for Oklahoma City Community College. Eds. Missy James and Alan P. Merickel. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2008. 30. Print. Oh
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