Sonnet 18
By William Shakespeare
The famous piece of work written by William Shakespeare known as “Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day” is a romantic, Shakespearean or English sonnet. It can be considered as a lyric poem that presents personal thoughts and emotions of the poet. The poem is in sonnet form, containing 14 lines of poetry written in iambic pentameter with a specific rhyme scheme with a regular pattern of rhymed words at the end of a line of poetry. It may be divided into two parts: the octet (lines 1-8) and the sestet (lines 9-14). The poet has established the theme of the poem that the beauty of a woman is greater than that of nature with the use of literary devices such as: personification, rhyme scheme and imagery.
Personification is used throughout the poem to powerfully establish the theme in this poem. Shakespeare led leads off the poem with a question that is addressed to his beloved:, "Shall I
compare thee to a summer's day?" Here the poet makes the suggestion of a comparison between his loved one to and a summer’s day,; when the flowers are blooming, trees are green, and the weather is warm. It is thought to be the most enjoyable time of the year. The second line of the poem states, “Thou art more lovely and more temperate,” here which suggests the speaker says that his the speaker’s beloved is more beautiful and more constant than nature. Shakespeare seems to make a point that beauty in nature doesn’t last forever in this world. The poetHe uses personification to distinguish explain tthat sometimes the sun is too hot--, “Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines;”--and other times it hides behind the clouds--, “often is his gold complexion dimm’d.” Everything that is beautiful will in time lose its beauty, either by misfortune or by the processes of nature--the seasons. Shakespeare tells us that everything, -good or bad, will eventually diminish in time, but his special one shall poem shall remain eternally beautiful...