Sonnet 18 - Shakespeare - Poetry Flashcards
What is Sonnet 18 about and what is it’s message about love?
Shakespeare puts the subject of the poem on a pedestal, suggesting their beauty transcends nature and will be preserved so long as men can read. This is a very idealised view of a person and very hyperbolic as the subject is compared to a season and the weather.
What form is Sonnet 18?
A Shakespearean sonnet - a train of thought leading to a conclusion. It is written in iambic pentameter which provides a constant beat that echoes his simple feelings about his love.
The speaker asks a rhetorical question, before refuting it immediately in this first quatrain. This emphasises how strongly the speaker feels about his love.
“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? / Thou art more lovely and more temperate.”
The speaker suggests that this poem will give the subject life beyond his years, preserving his beauty forever.
“So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, / So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.”
Things which would otherwise be irrelevant are extremely negative when compared to the subject’s perfection. Very idealised and hyperbolic.
“Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, / And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.”
