William Shakespeares Sonnet 18 Essay examples -- Shakespeare Sonnet

Keeping love alive is not easy. One knows that life eventually comes to an end, but does love? Time passes and days must end. It is in "Sonnet 18", by Shakespeare, that we see a challenge to the idea that love is finite. Shakespeare shows us how some love is eternal and will live on forever in comparison to a beautiful summer's day. Shakespeare has a way of keeping love alive in "Sonnet 18", and he uses a variety of techniques to demonstrate how love is more brilliant and everlasting than a summer's day. The first technique Shakespeare uses to demonstrate everlasting love is to ask the question "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" (1) This leads the reader to consider other questions. Is love as bright and beautiful as a summer's day? Is the person the speaker is admiring as lovely and as kind as a summer's day? These questions are answered in the second line with "Thou art more lovely and more temperate." This shows that the person the speaker is admiring is more beautiful, calm and understanding than a summer's day. The summer is inferior to the person being admired, and the speaker's love for this person is everlasting. If anyone has every experienced a beautiful summer's day he or she will see that the trees will shake from the wind. Leaves do eventually fall from the once lively buds of spring. Shakespeare also uses the technique of imagery to develop his idea of love in line three: "Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May." With this Shakespeare is telling us that though the winds of a summer shake the trees beauty, it will not shake the internal feelings of love from the speaker. Summer days are limited; they are short and soon will come to an end. Every year summer ends. Yes, it may begin again next year bu... ...agree with the sonnet and its final couplet. This structure, along with the iambic pentameters stressed and unstressed syllables engage the reader on the argument Shakespeare reaches for everlasting love. he structure of a Shakespearian sonnet aids in the emphasis of everlasting love. This also provides the reader to correctly read the sonnet as Shakespeare intended. Shakespeare has chosen the sonnet forms to develop his idea of everlasting love with questions, imagery, metaphors, rhyme schemes, and structure. Without these techniques we would not be able to gain the correct perspective that the beauty of love prevails over the beauty of nature; also how nature is not permanent and the sonnet will be everlasting. Works Cited Shakespeare, William. "Sonnet 18." Introduction to literature. Ed. Isobel M Findlay et al. 5th ed. Canada: Thomson Nelson, 2004. 133-134.