Shakespeare Sonnet 18

Sonnet 18

Shakespeare's sonnet 18 is a poem written to his beloved comparing him/her to a summer's day. What was the purpose of this poem and what is its true meaning behind the obvious? What is he saying exactly? For me this is almost hieroglyphics seeing as it is in old English text but I will attempt to extract some of the true meaning and thoughts of this poem. Who speaks in this poem? Shakespeare was obviously quite fond of this person. I will attempt to explicate this poem.

The writer writes about the conflict of comparing his beloved whom ever this may be with a summer's day in the first line this is obvious. He also tells us pretty much what he is writing about. In the second line he says "Thou art more lovely and Temperate" explaining that this person is apparently better than a summer's day that she is "more lovely" we see that this actually shows a glimpse of how the rest of the poem will play itself out. Making them appear seemingly superior to what he is comparing them to. This is something that is common to many poems of love. But it seems to become much more than that.

He than speaks of "rough winds that shake the darling buds of May" this line is in contrast to the first two. In lines one and two he speaks of things that remind us of calmness like a summer day. But here he speaks of these rough winds and in the line after speaks that "Summer's lease hath all to short a date" explaining that summer always seems to pass by much too quickly and fall is always looming after summer. The next lines seem to then again take some sort of turn and sort of complain about the summer. In the line "Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines" it seems to say that the summer although it is warm and pleasant is sometimes too harsh and can also be dimmed by the passing clouds.

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