What is the introduction of Sonnet 18?
“Sonnet 18” is one of the best-known of the 154 sonnets written by the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare. In the sonnet, the speaker asks whether he should compare the young man to a summer’s day, but notes that the young man has qualities that surpass a summer’s day.
How do you analyze Sonnet 18?
Shakespeare uses Sonnet 18 to praise his beloved’s beauty and describe all the ways in which their beauty is preferable to a summer day. The stability of love and its power to immortalize someone is the overarching theme of this poem.
What is the main message of Sonnet 18?
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.
What can you say about the poem Sonnet 18?
On the surface, the poem is simply a statement of praise about the beauty of the beloved; summer tends to unpleasant extremes of windiness and heat, but the beloved is always mild and temperate. Sonnet 18 is the first poem in the sonnets not to explicitly encourage the young man to have children.
Is Sonnet 18 about a woman?
The sonnet’s enduring power comes from Shakespeare’s ability to capture the essence of love so clearly and succinctly. After much debate among scholars, it is now generally accepted that the subject of the poem is male.
What figure of speech is used in Sonnet 18?
Oxymoron is also used in the sonnets. It is the figure of speech that combines two incongruous ideas as shown in Sonnets 18 and 150. The use of opposites together in one construction adds beauty and intricacy to the lines of Shakespeare’s sonnets.
Why does Shakespeare start Sonnet 18 with a question?
Shakespeare begins “Sonnet 18” with a question because his speaker is struggling to determine how to begin a poem praising his beloved. The easy and conventional way to address her would be to compare her to a summer’s day. By beginning with a question, the speaker is giving a species of soliloquy.