Shakespeare

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Sonnet 18

Unlike the movie “Shakespeare in love”would lead one to believe Sonnet 18 is not written in the name of true love, Sonnet 18 is not as much about the muse of the poem than it is about the poet himself. “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” The emphasis in the line is not the comparison that is being made but rather the way Shakespeare will take that comparison and make it fresh. The opening line is a challenge not a suggestion. While most poets would rely on the topos “you are as lovely as a summer’s day, Shakespeare freshens the metaphor, elevating the unknown person above the loveliness of summer. However the second half of the line is where Shakespeare really shows innovation by taking an otherwise neutral word, temperate, and engages the reader to question how temperate is complimentary.

Shakespeare begins by presenting the severity of summer which is often overlooked. He begins at the beginning, “Rough winds to shake the darling buds of May,” exposing early spring for what it is both creator and destroyer. The young plants which have been nurtured by the rain are at the same time being ravished by the storms of early summer. While the beginning of summer is rough and harsh Shakespeare then reminds the reader and the to the fleetingness of summer. Summer, which seems to be over as soon as it begins, is compared to a property lease which will inevitably end. Here a theme of possession begins to emerge, as though summer has bought a lease in the year. This theme is expanded latter in the poem; just as summer has a lease in the year which will run out, the muse will never loose the loveliness that they possess.

Shakespeare continues the expose the volatility of the revered season. “Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines/ and often is his fair complexion dimm’d;” Here Shakespeare takes the idyllic weather that is often associated with the summer and breaks the icon by reminding the reader of the imperfect days of summer. Here Shakespeare personifies the sun with human characteristics, by calling the sun the eye of heaven and referring to the suns face as a complexion which is dimmed. It is not until now that the real genius of the 2nd line in the poem can be appreciated. Before the flaws of summer were exposed; temperate was a neutral word which did not evoke an emotional response whereas now temperance, juxtaposed with those flaws, is a compliment rather than a neutered word.

Here there is a new turn in the poem known as a vulta. Shakespeare here breaks away from exposing the unappealing aspects of summer to a broader more generalized statement “And every fair from fair sometime declines,” Here Shakespeare suggests the impermanence of beauty, just as summer’s lease is all too short, everything that is fair must fade from its fair state at some point in time; whether it is by chance or from unbridled state of nature. “By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d” The latter part of the line evokes a strong image of nature, perhaps an English garden, which has been left to be overgrown with weeds and has declined from its former picturesque