Discussion Topic
The message and moral lesson of Shakespeare's Sonnet 18
Summary:
The message and moral lesson of Shakespeare's "Sonnet 18" revolve around the enduring nature of beauty and love. Shakespeare compares the beloved's beauty to a summer's day, suggesting that unlike summer, which fades, the beloved's beauty will live on forever through the immortalizing power of poetry.
What is the moral lesson of Shakespeare's Sonnet 18?
William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 is all about love, beauty, and poetry. The main purpose of this sonnet is to immortalize the beauty of the speaker’s love, not to teach a concrete moral lesson the way other types of writing like fables do. However, this sonnet does prompt the reader to reflect on interesting subjects, like the power of writing itself.
This sonnet is addressed to an unknown figure known as the Fair Youth. Shakespeare wrote many sonnets addressed to this figure. Recall how the speaker asks if he can compare the Fair Youth to a “summer’s day,” but then says he cannot because “summer’s lease hath all too short a date.” Here, the speaker reflects on the temporary nature of physical beauty. Just like summer always comes to end, all beautiful things eventually will too. This prompts the reader to reflect on the swift passage of time and perhaps appreciate the beauty around them knowing it will not last forever.
Later in the poem, the speaker says “thy eternal summer shall not fade … So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.” Here, the word “this” refers to this very sonnet. The speaker is therefore suggesting that this poem has the power to preserve the Fair Youth’s beauty. This is not a concrete moral lesson, such as “do not lie,” but it does prompt the reader of the sonnet to reflect on the enduring power of poetry.
What is the central conceit of Shakespeare's Sonnet 18?
A conceit is basically an extended metaphor. After Shakespeare's time (the Renaissance/Elizabethan period), the metaphysical poets like John Donne became famous for using conceits, but theirs were often especially unusual. Metaphors always compare two unlike things, but in the conceits of metaphysical poems, the analogies are especially strange and/or complex (like when Donne compares a potential sexual encounter with a flea bite in "The Flea").
In Sonnet 18, one of his most famous sonnets, Shakespeare's conceit isn't so unusual, but it is carried throughout the entire length of the sonnet. The first two lines of the poem clearly identify what Shakespeare parallels in the poem:
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;
The speaker builds his case by admitting that summer can be too hot. The seasons change, and nature moves on. Summer simply cannot and does not last. In the third quatrain, the speaker changes course a bit to more explicitly discuss the beloved's superiority to summer. He writes,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;
The speaker refers the beloved's "eternal summer," giving his impact, his beauty, and the speaker's love for him the advantage of having no end point. The beloved will never lose his "fair[ness]" as summer does. The speaker even says the beloved will best death, since he will live on in his poetry. Again, while summer lasts only a short time, as does mortal life, the beloved will live on, immortalized in Shakespeare's verse. The couplet at the end of the sonnet wraps up the poem by emphasizing this long-lasting nature of the beloved when compared to the summer's day:But thy eternal summer shall not fade, Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st; Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:
The speaker claims that as long as humankind exists, as long as eyes can see to read, the beloved will live on in his poetry. The sonnet itself "gives life to thee." The central conceit comparing the beloved to the summer's day rests on this thesis: summer is brief, but the beloved will live forever in the sonnet.So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
What is the theme of Sonnet 18?
The theme of "Sonnet 18," although open to interpretation, is eternal beauty through verse. This is known as possibly "the" best of Shakespeare's sonnets beginning with the immortal line, "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" It is one of the many sonnets written to the elusive "young man," that no one has ever been able to pin down. In regards to the theme, at the beginning of the poem, the young man is said to be "more lovely and more temperate" than a day in the season of summer. The speaker then immediately gives many examples of summer day issues: wind, length, heat, etc. By the end of the poem, it is clear that the reason why "thy eternal summer shall not fade" is precisely because Shakespeare has written this poem. Published poetic verse truly does lend immortality to the subject it's written about. Therefore, the theme of "Sonnet 18" is summed up quite nicely 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 is the theme of Shakespeare's Sonnet 18?
This is hands down the most famous of Shakespeare's sonnets. The speaker compares the subject to a summer's day and points out the many trivial imperfections that a summer day might have, while implying that the sonnet's subject is perfect in those regards. The speaker insists that summer days are often too hot, and the season itself is too short but that the subject's manner is temperate and their beauty eternal.
The theme is one of immortal beauty. The speaker has encouraged the subject in past sonnets to have children. In sonnet 17, he states that, "were some child of yours alive at that time, you should live twice." In this sonnet, it is the first time that the speaker does not make mention of the subject's lineage. The speaker realizes that as long as people have "eyes to see," the subject's beauty will live on through the sonnet itself. Seeing as we're discussing it hundreds of years later, it seems the speaker was right!
What are the themes of Shakespeare's Sonnet 18?
In Sonnet XVIII, written in the Petrarchan form of an octave followed by a sestet, Shakespeare incorporates Renaissance themes such as the imperfection of the universe because of the fall of man.
- The mutability of Nature
This theme of the imperfection of Nature is presented in the octave. In these first eight lines, the poet presents the argument that Spring and Summer "hath all too short a date," and, in addition to the fleeting nature of these seasons, at times summer it often too hot. Of course, the seasons change, as well. This last idea is the turn in thought, or volta.
- Art is immortal
In the sestet, then, the last six lines answer the argument presented in the first eight; namely, that Nature changes and, therefore, comparing the lover to "a summer's day" is an imperfect and temporal metaphor. But, putting his words of love into this poem will provide the lover with the perfect metaphor because in verse her "eternal summer shall not fade." That is, at least as long as mortal man lives so that "eyes can see" and read this verse, the woman's beauty will last. The concluding heroic couplet summarizes the poet's thoughts,
So long as men can breath, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
What is the message of Sonnet 18?
In Sonnet 18, Shakespeare presents the “immortality” provided by literature. Let’s look at how he does this.
The poem starts with a question, “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” The speaker then proceeds to do exactly that, but not in a way we might expect. His beloved is more beautiful and temperate. Summer can be a rough season at times, and it is short. The sun can shine too hot, and seasons quickly change.
But there is an “eternal summer” that will not fade, and this is the beloved’s beauty right now. We might wonder how this can be, for everyone dies. The speaker says, however, that death will not be able to brag. Why not? This poem, this very sonnet, will keep the beloved alive in a way.
The poem’s “eternal lines” will give life to the beloved “So long as men can breathe or eyes can see.” The poem will live on, and it will provide a kind of immortality to the beloved. Poetry is powerful, and according to Shakespeare, it can even conquer death.
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