What is the theme of Shakespeare's Sonnet 18?

The first line of Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 appears to be a question:

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

Shakespeare doesn't ask, "May I," or "Can I," or "Would you mind if I," nor in any way does he ask for permission or even for acquiescence from the person to whom the poem is addressed, to compare them to a summer's day. Shakespeare instead employs a rhetorical question, which effectively turns the question into a statement.

In asking, "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" Shakespeare has already done it. He's already compared the person to whom the poem is addressed to a summer's day, at least in the abstract. He continues the comparison through the next seven lines by referring to and comparing the person to whom the poem is addressed to certain, specific aspects of a summer's day.

"Thou art more lovely and more temperate," Shakespeare writes, then lists the ways in which the person to whom the poem is addressed isn't like a summer's day.

Nothing that Shakespeare writes about in these eight lines expresses the true theme of the poem. The first eight lines are simply the preamble to the next four lines, in which Shakespeare moves a little closer to the theme.

The ninth line, "But thy eternal summer shall not fade," intentionally leads the person to whom the poem is addressed to ask the question, "Why not? Why won't my eternal summer fade?"

Three lines later, Shakespeare answers the question: "When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st." When someone writes a poem ("eternal lines") about you, Shakespeare says, speaking to the person to whom the poem is addressed, then your "eternal summer," your eternal youth, your eternal beauty can never fade.

In the concluding couplet, Shakespeare finally gets to the theme of the poem:

So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

The poem isn't about a summer's day or even about the person to whom the poem is addressed. The poem is about Shakespeare himself. Through "this," through my poem, Shakespeare says to the person to whom the poem is addressed, you are immortalized; and you, your youth, and your beauty will live forever.

The theme of Sonnet 18 is that poetry can immortalize people and qualities that are, in reality, only fleeting and ephemeral. The speaker in this sonnet declares that his lover is actually better than a summer day because they are lovelier and milder than such a day. The winds can blow too roughly and harm the new flower buds, and summer really does not last that long anyway. There is something about that particular season that makes it seem so short. Further, the sun can sometimes shine too hotly, and, then again, on the other hand, the sun’s light is sometimes dimmed by passing clouds. It seems that the beauty in nature is temporary only and that it cannot last forever.

However, the speaker claims that his lover’s beauty, which should only last a similarly short time, will actually live forever in this poem. The beloved’s beauty will be as an “eternal summer” that never fades because this verse consists of “eternal lines” that will memorialize the beloved’s beauty forever. The speaker ultimately concludes that as long as there are people who are alive with the ability to read the words of the poem, the poem will be kept alive, as will the beloved one and their beauty.

The above commentators rightly argue that Sonnet 18 is about the eternity of Shakespearean “lines.” This interpretation, however, can be extended a little further. The sonnet is not only about Shakespeare’s “eternal lines,” but it is also about how in time Shakespeare’s observations grow. In the final line of the third quatrain Shakespeare notes “in eternal lines to time thou gorw’st.” The beloved’s beauty not only remains unchanged in perpetuity, but it also grows parallel to time. In the couplet Shakespeare confirms this observation: “this gives life to thee.” Shakespeare’s observations will not only be read “so long as men can breathe,” but they will also offer life to the object which Shakespeare appreciates and this life giving force will give the object the potential to live in perpetuity. As the object grows eternally Shakespeare’s observations too receives perpetual growth from within—critics even today continuously enrich Shakespearean “eternal lines” with new interpretations.

Nature fades but art is immortal. Though beautiful at moments in time, everything in nature enjoys but a moment of perfection. In time every virtue will be destroyed, every potential beauty ravaged by the elements, and every perfection will come to contain imperfections. In art, however, the essence of perfection will be captured. Though everything in the world dies and fades, the subject of poetry enjoys eternal life.

Explain the last two lines of Shakespeare's Sonnet 18.

A Shakespearean sonnet usually ends with a "turn" in the final couplet. This means that the subject of the first twelve lines is considered from a different perspective, or that the poet adds a new idea to the argument he has been making. In Sonnet 18, the poet has been comparing his beloved with a summer's day, to the advantage of the beloved. None of the factors which might spoil the summer's day are present in the addressee, who outshines it in every way.

The final point Shakespeare makes is that unlike the summer's day, the subject of his sonnet is immortal. This is a larger claim than the reader expects. It is true that young lovers last longer than summer's days, but they do not last forever. The poet, therefore, explains in the last two lines,

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

What the last two lines of this sonnet mean is that Shakespeare is bragging about the importance of his work and of this poem in particular.

In the rest of the poem, he has talked about (among other things) how brief and transient a summer's day is.  Then he has contrasted that with how his love will be immortal.  He has said that she will never die because he has written this poem about her (that is what the line just before the couplet is saying).

In the couplet, he completes the thought by saying that as long as people exist, this poem will exist and she will live in the poem.

What figures of speech are in Shakespeare's Sonnet 18?

In addition to the other answers, this poem also makes use of apostrophe.  Apostrophe is when the speaker of the poem addresses someone who is absent, an abstract idea (e.g., love, time), or an object (e.g., a vase, a flower).  In beginning this poem with a question addressed to the speaker's lover, called only "thee" in line 1, Shakespeare employs apostrophe.  

Others have identified the figure that occurs in line 5, with the "eye of heaven," but there is an addition to this figure in the next line.  The speaker says, "often is his gold complexion dimmed" (line 6).  Referring either to the sun, identified as the "eye," or to heaven itself, the speaker uses personification when he uses the possessive "his" and speaks of a "complexion."

Further, in the final line, the speaker refers to the poem, saying, "So long lives this, and this gives life to thee" (line 14).  A poem, however, is not something that is alive—it does not "live"—but Shakespeare personifies it, saying that the poem will have a life.  Moreover, even if the woman the speaker addresses dies, this poem's life will continue to keep her alive as well. 

In addition to what the first answer identifies, I think there are at least a couple more figures of speech in this sonnet.

First, I would say there is metaphor.  When Shakespeare talks about "thy eternal summer" he is not using the word summer in the literal sense.  Rather, he is using summer as a metaphor for the peak of someone's life or, in this case, loveliness.

Second, I think the whole sonnet is an example of hyperbole.  Surely she will not enjoy an eternal summer where she is always lovely.  Surely the comparison to a summer day is exaggerated.  I think he is overstating her charms to make his point.

The poem begins with a comparison, so simile is the first figure of speech that you may want to identify and discuss. There's also "the eye of heaven" later in the poem, a fancy way to talk about the sun; you might identify and discuss this as periphrasis. Finally, "nor Death shall brag" presents death as a figure, so you can talk about personification here. I'm sure there are a number of other figures of speech at work in the poem (e.g. parallelism), and I hope that others will identify some of them.

In your analysis, I would encourage you to define briefly each figure of speech and make it clear where each figure of speech can be found in the poem; simply naming the figures of speech used in the poem may not be enough.

Crucial to understanding this excellent sonnet revolves around your appreciation of how the ideas expressed in this sonnet are structured. The sonnet begins with a question in the first line that is responded to by negative answers. Whilst the speaker's beloved does bear some resemblance to a "summer's day," they are but superficial, and the first two quatrains focus on the ways that the summer day is not perfect rather than the loved one. Then in line 9 we have the turn, or "volta," when the speaker focuses on his beloved and forgets the summer's day.

So, when we think about the figures of speech, they are either employed to describe the imperfections of the summer's day or the speaker's beloved, build around the extended metaphor of comparing the beloved to a summer's day and finding the summer's day wanting:

But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest...

We can see here that continuing the extended metaphor, the speaker explains the way that his beloved is actually better than the summer's day he wants to compare her to at the beginning, saying that her "eternal summer" will not diminish and her beauty will not decline. Hopefully this description of the sonnet will help you pick out other figures of speech. Good luck!

What are the similes and metaphors in Shakespeare's Sonnet 18?

Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 comes close to being an extended simile, without ever quite being one. A poem which said "You are like a summer's day, in the following ways" would clearly be a simile on the same expansive scale as Homer's comparisons. Here, however, the poet cannot make up his mind that his beloved should be compared to a summer's day, then proceeds to list the ways in which the two are dissimilar.

There are several metaphors within the poem, however. In the fourth line, the image is drawn from the legal profession. Summer is described as being like the tenancy of a house with a short-term lease, emphasizing the brevity of the season. In the following two lines, the sun is first described as an eye, then as a face which has a "gold complexion." Both these metaphors personify the sun, an effect reinforced by the use of the pronoun "he."

At the end of the second quatrain, the changing of the seasons is compared to a ship changing course with "untrimm'd" sails. Finally, there is the personification of death in the third quatrain. Personification is a type of metaphor, since the object (or, in this case, the concept) is being described as a human being, in this case a boastful one, who is inclined to brag about the extent of his power.

The speaker begins the poem by comparing his lover to a summer day, claiming that he is, ultimately, more beautiful and more pleasantly moderate: sometimes the winds blow roughly and summer isn't really around for very long anyway.  One might argue that, though this is a comparison, it isn't really a metaphor because the speaker doesn't say that one thing is another: he merely asks if it is worthwhile to compare the two things and then explains that it probably is because his lover is better.

As further proof that his lover is even better than a summer day, the speaker continues, saying that the sun sometimes shines too hotly and the beauty of things fades over time.  He calls the sun "the eye of heaven," employing a metaphor which compares the sun to an eye.  However, his lover's "eternal summer" will never go away, as the real summer does.  Here, he compares his beauty, via metaphor, to an everlasting summer in order to emphasize his belief that it will never fade. 

The speaker also says that death (which is personified) will never be able to brag that this beautiful lover "wander[s] in his shade."  One could argue that he employs another metaphor here to compare the experience of being dead to "wander[ing] in [...] shade."  

A simile is the comparison between two things using the words "like" or "as" to denote the comparison. A metaphor, on the other hand, does not use the words "like" or "as" to denote the comparison.

In Shakespeare's Sonnet 18, "Shall I Compare the to a Summer's Day," there are multiple metaphors.

1. The first metaphor appears in line one. The metaphor is the comparison between the subject of the poem to a summer's day.

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

2. The next metaphor appears in line five. Here, the comparison is made between the sun and a hot eye.

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines.

3. One final metaphor is found in line eight. The seasons of the year are compared to a change of course.

By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd.

No similes appear in Sonnet 18.

What is the problem presented in Shakespeare's Sonnet 18?

The problem in sonnet 18 is that everything in nature dies. The poet wants to find some great metaphor to compare his love to, but none of the traditional metaphors work. Why? Because everything in nature eventually decomposes. That's a problem because he wants some aspect of her to be immortal.

So the quick and dirty, easy way to figure out a sonnet is to separate the poem into an octave(8) and a sestet(6). Look for a "but" or a "yet" or some other turning word at the beginning of the sestet. Also look for a rhyming couplet at the end. Shakespeare sometimes messes with form, so he'll often start an apparent turn at the sestet and make his final point at the rhyming couplet. That's what he does here: first 8 lines--he'd compare her to the best of nature, but that's not good enough because nature is flawed and impermanent; at the sestet--"but thy eternal summer shall not fade..." he says that she will live forever fair (the metaphor is not entirely rejected but is being reinvented) and, finally, at the end, he says how he'll accomplish this godlike act: she'll live on in a permanent, unfading summer (her beauty will last forever) because he is writing a poem about her. And, arrogant as it sounded, in his case, it worked: his poem has long since outlived her. 

All sonnets do this...the "turn" or the switch from problem or situation to answer is different for most sonnets.  Petrarchan or Italian sonnets usually "turn" after the first eight lines.  Sonnet 43 "How do I love thee" by Elizabeth Barrett Browning is one exception since her Italian sonnet begins to "turn" after the first line.

English sonnets--either Shakespearian or Spenserian (Edmund Spenser) turn after the first 12 lines.

I like to call the "turn" the BIG BUT.  The turn is usually begun with some transitional word or conjunction like yet, but, so, etc.

So, read your sonnet a min imum of 3 times.  First for the content--get the gist of the poem.  Second, for the problem and the solution (the turn is in there somewhere...look for the big but) Third for the rhythm and sheer beauty of the language. The more you read those 14 well-constructed lines, the better you'll understand them and the more you will learn to love poetry.

Good LUck!

You are correct.  Sonnets are structured so that the first part presents a problem or asks a question, and the second part provides an answer or solution.  In Sonnet 18, the problem presented is that summer is not a sufficient way to describe the beauty of the woman Shakespeare is talking about.  He is trying to find a way to describe her beauty, but in the first 8 lines he lists off all the reasons why comparing her to a summer day doesn't work.  She is more beautiful, more fair, etc.  In the last 6 lines, Shakespeare offers the solution that her beauty will be praised for eternity within the poem he has written.

Can you provide a critical analysis of Shakespeare's Sonnet 18?

A critical analysis of Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 discusses everything from structure to rhetorical figure of speech word schemes. The structure is that of an English, or Shakespearean, 14 line sonnet having three quatrains with one ending couplet. This differs from the Italian Petrarchan sonnet form of two quatrains and one sestet with no rhyming couplet. The rhyme scheme is the traditional English sonnet scheme of abab cdcd efef gg. The underlying metaphor is built upon a comparison of his beloved's youth and beauty to a summer's day. The poetic speaker asserts that she cannot be thus compared because she shall be eternal through the power of his poetic lines.

The first quatrain (lines 1-4) says she is more lovely than a summer's day and more "temperate" than the "darling buds of May": so the summer day and she are contrasted with each other. The second quatrain says summer days can be too hot, decline, be dimmed and changed: "fair from fair sometime declines." The third quatrain says that she will not fade nor know death like a summer day will do because she will continue "in eternal lines to time." The ending couplet finalizes the theme of eternal beauty and youth caught in the poet's immortalizing lines by saying she will live as long as "men can breathe or eyes can see." The theme can thus be stated as: Eternal beauty and youth are bestowed by the poet's immortal and immortalizing lines that withstand the diminishment of time, quite unlike "a summer's day."

The structure adheres to the sonnet form that specifies a problem or complication be given in the second quatrain (lines 5-8) to the situation introduced in the first quatrain (lines 1-4). In this case, the problem (5-8) is that summer days are diminished and so is mortal beauty. The situation (1-4) is the contemplation of youth and beauty in comparative relation to a summer's day. The third quatrain (lines 9-12) offers the solution or resolution to the problem. (The subject change at line 9 is called the volta, or turn.) In this case, the solution (9-12) is to make her "eternal summer" of youth and beauty immortal through lines of poetry. The ending couplet finalizes the thought of lines 9-12 and makes the concluding pronouncement. In this case, it is:

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this and this gives life to thee.

Poetic techniques Shakespeare uses include metaphor (e.g., "too hot the eye of heaven"; "his gold complexion dimmed"); personification (e.g., "shall Death brag"); and his trademark word play where varying meanings of a word are played off of each other (e.g., "every fair from fair"). Some key rhetorical techniques used as figurative word schemes are hyperbole (e.g., "So long as men shall live"); polysyndeton, which is the use of "and" for rhetorical effect (e.g., "So long lives this and this gives life to thee"); and chiasmus, which is inverted parallelism also as in "So long lives this and this gives life to thee." The inversion is as this illustrates: lives ==> this / this ==> gives.

Your first step in writing a critical appreciation of Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 ("Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?") should be to analyze its prosodic structure. You should note that it follows the standard form of the English sonnet, consisting of three open quatrains and a couplet, all using iambic pentameter. Despite being rhymed as an English sonnet, it has a classically Petrarchan turn after the second quatrain. You might wish to discuss how this generic echo of the Italian form makes this more effective as a sort of anti-Petrarchan sonnet. You might also wish to note that using an established genre for love poetry enhances the claim of eternal preservation of beauty in poetic form made in the couplet.

Your second task will be analysis of the way Shakespeare uses comparison. You should discuss how the poet starts by making us assume that the poem will be a fairly straightforwardly encomiastic work, praising the beloved as even better than a summer day. In fact, however, we discover that the poet is not so much praising his beloved as himself and the power of poetry to grant immortality to its subjects. Thus you might want to talk about the effectiveness of the way Shakespeare contrasts the perfection of art with the imperfection of material and ephemeral things.

What are some features of Shakespeare's Sonnet 18?

This poem has one dominating metaphor in which the beauty of the speaker's beloved is compared to an "eternal summer." She comes out ahead, obviously, as her beauty will "never fade" while summer's surely will as it turns to fall and winter. She is "temperate" in a way that summer is not; the summer sun can be "too hot" or, conversely, it can be dimmed by clouds. The "rough winds" can shake and damage the gentle buds on the trees.

Most of all, however, the season of summer comes and goes, having "all too short a date." The speaker and his subject's beauty, on the other hand, will be "eternal" because they have been immortalized in verse. In the end, then, the central metaphor is not really very apt at all: another form of flattery for the speaker's mistress.

Like most Shakespearean sonnets, Sonnet 18 consists of 14 lines of iambic pentameter, with a rhyme scheme of abab cdcd efef gg. The poem is composed of three quatrains and a final couplet.

Many of Shakespeare's sonnets address themes of love, beauty, and mortality, and Sonnet 18 is no exception. Here, the speaker argues that although "Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May" (3), and time will "fade" his love's beauty, his/her "eternal summer" (9) has been immortalized through verse. Thus, "So long as men can breathe or eyes can see" (13), the lover, and the speaker's devotion, will continue in perpetuity. Thus, the sonnet lauds the triumph of love (and poetry) over death.

We can also note that, in Sonnet 18, a volta ("turn") in the argument occurs at line 9 ("But thy eternal summer shall not..."). Whereas the first portion of the sonnet is dominated by images of mortality and ravaging time, the latter half claims that all such realities can be overcome by love and poetry, which endlessly "give[s] life" (14) to the speaker's beloved. Voltas are a common element in Shakespearean sonnets, and contribute to the wit, vitality, and ease for which they are known and praised.

How does the form of Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 establish the theme and what is it?

Arguably his most well-known sonnet, Shakespeare's Sonnet XVIII is written in the Petrarchan sonnet form. This form lends itself well to the expression of the theme of the constancy of true love and its ability to be immortalized.

In his exultant first lines, the poem's speaker asks the rhetorical question, "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" and then contends that his lover is more "lovely and temperate" than the seasons. For "Rough winds" shake the delicate Spring buds from the trees, and in summer "too hot the eye of heaven shines." After these and other expansive reflections in the first eight lines, line nine contains the Petrarchan Volta, or turn in thought. It is here that Shakespeare begins his contrast of the lover's beauty with that of the summer's day: "But thy eternal summer shall not fade." The sestet of this Petrarchan sonnet then argues that unlike the temporal seasons' loveliness, the lover's beauty will be eternal because this beauty will be preserved in his verse as long as "men can breathe or eyes can see."

The Petrarchan sonnet is a poetic form that lends strength to Shakespeare's theme in Sonnet XVIII with the contrast between the two parts. For the question of his lover's being compared to a summer's day in the first eight lines is passionately answered in the final six lines, lines which express the theme of the poem. Perhaps partly because of its form, Sonnet XVIII is one of the most enthusiastic of Shakespeare's sonnets in its lovely poetic expression and passionate declarations.

I'm not sure what you mean by the term "form", but if what you mean is the content and how it implies the theme, then the first line, "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day" establishes the nature theme that prevails throughout the sonnet. This is because each line draws a comparison between the receiver of the poem and an element of nature. Take for example the next line, "rough winds do shake the darling buds of may". This line evidences the theme of nature established in the first line because it is again a comparison between the rough winds (an element of nature) to the receiver of the poem.

Can you paraphrase Shakespeare's Sonnet 18?

Well, to paraphrase something means to "express the same message in different words," so that is what I will try to do:

I'd compare you to a summer's day,

but you are prettier and more pleasant.

In spring rough winds shake the trees

and mess up their new leaves,

and summer doesn't last that long once it comes.

Sometimes the sun is too hot

and sometimes it is too cold out,

but that is just the way nature works.

You, though, are the gift that keeps on giving!

Baby, you're like a summer that never goes away.

Not even death can wipe out the memory

of how great my love is for you,

because I wrote this sweet poem about it.

As long as people have eyes and can read

this poem will remind them

how much I loved you.

That's about it: I love you, you're way better than the beautiful stuff people usually think of, and this poem will remind people forever how much I love you.  Romantic, huh?

Describe the imagery, figures and rhyme scheme of Sonnet 18.

There's an extensive, line-by-lne discussion of William Shakespeare's sonnet 18 at the web site given below.

To answer your question quickly, though, let me say that following:

The rhyme scheme is pretty much what is expected of a Shakespearean sonnet: ABAB CDCD EFEF GG

Each letter in the rhyme scheme represents a syllable sound, so the stanza with the ABAB rhyme scheme has the first and third lines rhyming ("day" and "May") and the second and fourth lines rhyming ("temperate" and "date"). You will notice that this pair of rhymes is a little forced or perhaps less pure than it was in Shakespeare's time: modern speakers tend not to stress the "ate" in "temperate" but do stress the monosyllabic word "date," making the two not really rhyme all that well.

The imagery would be, put simply, all of the descriptive word-pictures surrounding a beautiful summer day that are mentioned in the poem, particularly the extensive descriptions of the sun.

There are probably a number of figures of speech. I'll name only one: personification. The sun in the poem is said to have an "eye" and a "complexion" and is refered to as male ("his"). Attributing human features to an inanimate object is personification.

This poem has been discussed a great deal on this website. Maybe you can use the search feature to find those discussions.

What is the theme of Shakespeare's Sonnet 18?

The theme of Shakespeare's sonnet #18 is similar to that of many of his other sonnets. The gist of it is that he is making his loved one immortal because he is confident that his own poetry is immortal. So far he has been correct in his belief. His sonnets are known and loved all over the world after over four hundred years.

In sonnet #18 he plays with the idea of comparing his loved one to a summer's day. He disparages summer because, for one thing,

Thou art more lovely and more temperate

He reflects that summer does not last long

But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest;

"...fair thou owest" means "the beauty you possess." "Owest" meant "own" in Elizabethan times.

Another great sonnet which has the same theme is sonnet #55, which begins with the following lines:

Not marble, nor the gilded monuments
Of princes, shall outlive this powerful rhyme,
But you shall shine more bright in these contents
Than unswept stone, besmear'd with sluttish time.

Here again Shakespeare is promising to immortalize his loved one in his immortal poetry. By "these contents" he of course means the contents of the sonnet he is composing.

Another great sonnet which deals with the same theme is #19, which begins with the startling line:

Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion's paws

This sonnet ends with a couplet expressing Shakespeare's familiar theme that he will immortalize his loved one in his poetry:

Yet, do thy worst, old Time, despite thy wrong,
My love shall in my verse ever live young.

Can you write an introduction to Sonnet 18?

Shakespeare's "Sonnet 18" is predominately about the value and the lasting effects of art as compared to nature.  The lover or object of the speaker's affection isn't the summer day.  The speaker might be tempted to compare his object to a summer day, except that the summer day falls short in the comparison. 

In short, summer days do not last, in multiple ways.  The poet's object will last, because the speaker immortalizes him/her in the poem.  That is what art does--lasts forever.  Nature does not. 

The poem concludes:

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this [the poem], and this gives life to thee.

That is what the poem is about.

Do you mean Shakespeare's Sonnet 18?

SONNET 18

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this and this gives life to thee.

This sonnet is one of Shakespeare's most famous ones because it is pretty easy to understand. It is a metaphor for his love or, as some have suggested, a dear friend. The "love" or "friend" is the summer day. The sonnet points out all the parts of a beautiful summer day that remind him of his love/friend.

The summer day has some negative aspects, however, whereas his love does not. His love "is more beautiful than a summer day" - and he explains why. His love is more temperate; sometimes a summer day can get too hot. Sometimes summer winds "shake" away the beautiful May buds. Finally, unlike the summer day, which has an end, the poet says that his love for his friend will live forever because this love is immortalized by the poet's verse.

There are some cool metaphors: the eye of heaven is the sun. "The eternal lines" are the poet's verse, etc. The sonnet has a rhyme scheme of abab, cdcd, efef, gg - very regular. It is written in iambic pentameter and the couplet at the end sums up the theme, that as long as there are people on earth to read the poem, his love will live on.

Can you explain each two-line stanza in Sonnet 18?

Concerning your question about Shakespeare's "Sonnet 18," just so you don't leave the answers to your question with a misunderstanding, the sonnet isn't arranged in two-line stanzas.

A Shakespearean sonnet is usually organized in three quatrains (four-line stanzas), followed by a couplet (a pair of rhyming lines).  You can see this in the rhyme scheme of this sonnet:

a b a b c d c d e f e f g g

The rhymes form the stanzas with the combinations of a and b, c and d, e and f, and g and g.

Just to explain, in the first stanza, day and May rhyme, and temperate and date form a sight rhyme.

1. The speaker wants to think about comparing his love to a summer's day.  But he says she is more beautiful and more moderate than that.
2. That's because there are strong winds and because summer doesn't last long.
3. Sometimes it's too hot, sometimes not sunny enough.
4. Everything that is beautiful naturally fades away and gets less beautiful.
5. But she and her beauty will not fade.
6. And she will never die -- death can never claim her.
7. So long as this poem is around, it will give life to her.

Can you provide a commentary on Shakespeare's Sonnet 18?

William Shakespeare developed his own style of poetic sonnet. "Sonnet 18" is a perfect example of the Shakespearean sonnet.  The poem has fourteen lines with three quatrains and a couplet at the end. The rhyme scheme follows a set of pattern of  ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. In Shakepeare's sonnets, he changes his focus and tone in the ninth line of his poem. 

"Sonnet 18" is the first of Shakepeare's sonnets to express romantic love for a young man.  The "thee" in the poem is a"fair youth" that the poet deeply loves.  This sonnet begins as a true love poem; however, the focus changes to the eternal lines of the poem and its effect on the youth.

In the first quatrain, the poet asks a rhetorical question: Should he compare this young man to a summer's day? He intends on answering the question himself.  The man has the qualities of beauty and moderation. The summer day is also beautiful and the temperatures vary...but the day cannot compete with the man.

In the last two lines of the quatrain, the poet ridicules the summer day for the harsh wind that sometimes kills the spring blossoms; and the summertime does not last. Shakespeare employs personification when referring to the summer day's abilities:

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date...

The second quatrain continues the theme of the inadequacies of the summer day in comparison to the young man's worth. The sun's beauty is  sometimes clouded over and dimmed.  Everything fades because of nature or fate.

Then, the poet changes to the young man and the poet's tribute to him.

But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,

In the final quatrain, the poet enlists a metaphor to compare the young man again to the season.  Unlike the summer, his days will not fade away nor will his beauty be lost. Death personified will not be able to brag about how he has conquered the man as he ages.

In the couplet, the poet provides the reason why death will have no victory here. As long as men are alive and able to read this poem, the young man will never die. The poem will stand "in memorial" for the man forever. 

The poem serves two purposes: one to proclaim the beauty of the young man and the poet's love for him; and, to somewhat arrogantly, establish that the poem will make the man live forever through its words.

This poem stands the test of time.  We are still reading it today.  It thoughts are lovely. It makes the reader want to see and know the young man who was the subject of Shakespeare's love.

Analyze the dramatic situation in Shakespeare's Sonnet 18.

A dramatic situation is defined as one in which the  characters of a story are in engaged in conflicts of one sort or another and these characters and conflicts interest and compel the reader's attention. Carlo Gozzi and, later, Georges Polti identified 36 types of literary conflicts. Some of the classic types of conflicts are:
Human against Human
Human against Nature
Human against Self (inner conflicts)
Human against Supernatural
Human against Society
Human against Fate (or Destiny)
Human against Machine

So, a dramatic situation embroils one or more sympathetic (i.e., readily sympathized with) characters into one or more conflicts against themselves or against external forces.

Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 is a quiet contemplative sonnet in which the poetic speaker explains why his beloved is more wonderful than "a summer's day" and therefore worthy of immortality granted through being the subject of an eternal sonnet. Thus the dramatic situation must, of necessity, be a subtle one.

The characters are the poetic speaker and the implied subject of the sonnet, his beloved. The setting is nature with elements of "rough wind" and "darling buds of May" and the Sun, the "too hot eye of heaven," and "nature's changing course." The primary conflict is a surprising one and only indirectly related to the beloved and sonneteer. The conflict is that of Nature against Nature as the rough winds and burning sun chases "every fair from fair" and into declining beauty as the buds are shaken and summer's green growth ends while "nature's course" changes from full bloom to fallen blossoms and withered leaves.

The dramatic situation therefore is that (1) the sonneteer has removed his beloved from that conflict; they look at it as if it were through a window glass: the conflict does not touch the beloved. Furthermore, (2) the sonneteer insures that the conflict of Nature (physical nature) against Nature (natural human beauty) will never touch his beloved. He insures this because he will bestow eternal life and immortal beauty upon his beloved through the words and lines of his sonnet: Sonnet 18, the sonnet that immortalizes against Nature's decline.

What is the interpretation of Sonnet 18?

Anthony Hecht in his introduction to Blakemore Evans’s edited collection of Shakespeare’s sonnets argues that ‘Sonnet 18 “[…] is decisively Petrarchan, notwithstanding its Shakespearean rhyme scheme. To begin with, it is rhetorically divided into octave and sestet, the change between the two parts balanced on the fulcrum of the word but at the beginning of the ninth line.” (See The New Cambridge Shakespeare, p.9) Shakespeare’s ‘Sonnet 18’, therefore, can be interpreted from another perspective. The first eight lines (the Petrarchan octave) offer a comparison between the beloved’s beauty and a summer’s day. Shakespeare claims that his beloved is more beautiful than a summer’s day and argues that beauty from summer and nature “declines” as time progresses. In the last six lines (the Petrarchan sestet) Shakespeare notes why and how the beloved’s beauty will remain “eternal”. Shakespeare claims that his lines are “eternal” and in his “eternal lines” the beloved’s beauty will remain unchanged in perpetuity.

Recognition of some of the literary devices enhance our appreciation of the poem. The dominant metaphor is the beloved is a "summer's day." The first two lines make an assertion, and the colon indicates that the succeeding 2 lines explain why the beloved is more "temperate"--less volatile--in that he lacks "rough winds"--a metaphor for emotional turmoil--and the beloved is also better than "summer" (usually considered a perfect time of year) because summer is only borrowed time (leased).  The "eye of heaven" in line 5 is the sun, and the personification of the sun continues by giving him a "gold complexion." "Ow'st" (owns) in line 10 contrasts with "leased" in line 4, and the personification of death, by means of capitalizing it and giving it the quality to brag, becomes the antagonist over which the beloved wins out. The "grow'st" in line 12 gives the beloved more qualities of nature. Then, in the concluding couplet, the poet has the power of nature in that he can give life to his beloved through the poetry he writes.

 Sonnet 18 is one of Shakespeare's most well-known and recognized pieces of poetry.

The first quatrain is a comparison of a young man to a summer's day-and the outcome is "thou art more lovely and more temperate". The young man is perfection, and outdoes even nature. The poet is unable to give adequate crdeit to all the young man is.

The second quatrain describes the conditions that will affect such perfection. Time is fleeting, and perfection is not permanent.  It is hard to remain perfect where mortals are concerned. The summer is only one season in the year, and this refers to the inevitable aging that will occur.

The last quatrain suggests that through this poem, the young man will achieve immortality. The poet has written lines that will keep the young man alive in the minds of the reader. "So long lives this, and gives life to thee".

Can you analyze each stanza in Sonnet 18?

This is one of Shakespeare's more famous sonnets and is thought to be part of the "Fair Youth" set of sonnet.  It is believed Shakespeare was addressing a young man of whom he was fond--perhaps a lover, more likely a friend. The style is a Petrarchian sonnet, written about love and presenting a problem in the first two quatrain, a shift in thought in the third quatrain, and a resolution of sorts in the rhyming couplet at the end.

The first quartrain begins with a rhetorical question--"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?"  Shakespeare's response is in line two--the person to whom this poem is addressed is more beautiful and more temperate--more balanced--than a summer day.  Lines three and four discuss the ephemeral nature of beauty and summer--wind comes and strips the tree of its beautiful May flowers, and summer days eventually turn to fall.

Quatrain two continues the theme that good and beautiful things cannot be good and beautiful forever.  Shakespeare writes of "the hot eye of heaven"--the sun--is sometimes too hot and other times is hidden by clouds--"his gold complexion dimm'd." (lines 5 and 6.)  Lines 7 and 8 discuss how everything beautiful will lose its beauty ("fair from fair sometime declines," in this instance "fair" meaning "beauty"). This will happen by chance (or misfortune) or by nature's natural course ("nature's changing course untrimm'd".)

Line nine notifies the read of the shift in thought with the word "but."  The person to whom the poem is written is told in lines 9 and 10 that his/her beauty will not fade, like the natural things mentioned above--"thy eternal summer shall not fade/nor lose possession of that fair (beauty) thou owest."  Death will not even take this lover away (line 11) because Shakespeare is immortalizing the lover in this poem (line 12.)

The resolution in the couplet is that as long as there are people on the Earth (line 13), this poem will exist, and the lover will remain immortal and be remembered in it.

So, the overall theme is that beauty usually fade; however, the beauty of Shakespeare's beloved will last forever because Shakespeare immortalized it in a poem.

Can you summarize Sonnet 18?

This fourteen-line poem begins with a straightforward question in the first person, addressed to the object of the poet’s attention: “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” After a direct answer, “Thou art more lovely and more temperate,” the next seven lines of the poem develop the comparison with a series of objections to a summer day. For one example, he thinks that Summer and the May winds shake the buds. In lines 7 and 8, the poet summarizes his objections to the summer day by asserting that everything that is fair will be “untrimmed,” either by chance or by a natural process. The most obvious meaning here is that everything that summer produces will become less beautiful over time. The last six lines indicate that the person about whom Shakespeare is writing, will never be forgotten or fade, because she will be immortalized in the Sonnet.

Can you explain Sonnet 18?

I'm going to assume that you mean Shakespeare's "Sonnet 18."  That's the "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day" sonnet.  

First, it is a Shakespearean sonnet.  That means the poem is 14 lines long.  It has an ABABCDCDEFEFGG rhyme scheme.  Each line is 10 syllables written in iambic feet.  That makes the entire sonnet iambic pentameter.  Furthermore, because of the rhyme scheme, a Shakespearean sonnet is comprised of 3 quatrains and ends with a couplet. 

The content of Sonnet 18 is the speaker's comparison of his lover to a summer's day.  Summer is beautiful.  Warm weather, trees with leaves, breezes, etc.  Oh, and no school usually.  Summer is amazing.  The first line proposes the comparison between summer and the lover.  The rest of the sonnet explains why the lover is more awesome and beautiful than summer.  Line two says that she is more beautiful and "temperate".  That means more stable and less extreme than say the warm day/cool night that summer has. Shakespeare also says that summer is entirely too short and not long lasting, unlike his lover. He says that her beauty will "never fade" and will outlast death itself.  

That last set of lines explains how her beauty will defy the grave.  Shakespeare more or less says that because he wrote it down, and men live and "breathe," they will be able to read this poem.  She is forever immortalized within the sonnet. I guess Shakespeare was right. 

What online images could represent the theme and meaning of Sonnet 18?

Considering that Sonnet 18 is a comparison between the object of the poet's affection and a summer's day, a summer-themed image would make the most sense. However, the sonnet makes it a point to mention the ugly or at least less-attractive sides of summer—its winds, hot sun, obscuring clouds, and impermanence. The poet tells us that, because of these things, the sonnet's subject is superior to summer. Perhaps when looking for an image, you can consider one that shows the ugly side of a summer's day.

Samuel Palmer's mid-19th Century painting Summer Storm Near Pulborough, Sussex comes to mind as a good image to choose from. This painting shows some of the less attractive sides of summer. Even though there are hints of blue sky and far off sunshine, a torrential rainstorm is moving in and the wind is picking up. Peasants rush to get the laundry off the line, and a shepherd urgently moves his flock down the road. The colors are a mix of light and dark, further showing the dual nature of the season. After viewing this painting, it is clear that comparing a person to this particular summer's day would not be much of a compliment. Even more, this painting is set in the English countryside, so it is an image of a subject and landscape that William Shakespeare would have been familiar with.

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