| directory |
| home | contact |
|
|||||||||||||||
| search | |||||||||||||||
Notestemperate (1): i.e., evenly-tempered; not overcome by passion.the eye of heaven (5): i.e., the sun. every fair from fair sometime declines (7): i.e., the beauty (fair) of everything beautiful (fair) will fade (declines). Compare to Sonnet 116: "rosy lips and cheeks/Within his bending sickle's compass come." nature's changing course (8): i.e., the natural changes age brings. that fair thou ow'st (10): i.e., that beauty you possess. in eternal lines...growest (12): The poet is using a grafting metaphor in this line. Grafting is a technique used to join parts from two plants with cords so that they grow as one. Thus the beloved becomes immortal, grafted to time with the poet's cords (his "eternal lines"). For commentary on whether this sonnet is really "one long exercise in self-glorification", please see below. Sonnet 18 is the best known and most well-loved of all 154 sonnets. It is also one of the most straightforward in language and intent. The stability of love and its power to immortalize the subject of the poet's verse is the theme. The poet starts the praise of his dear friend without ostentation, but he slowly builds the image of his friend into that of a perfect being. His friend is first compared to summer in the octave, but, at the start of the third quatrain (9), he is summer, and thus, he has metamorphosed into the standard by which true beauty can and should be judged. The poet's only answer to such profound joy and beauty is to ensure that his friend be forever in human memory, saved from the oblivion that accompanies death. He achieves this through his verse, believing that, as history writes itself, his friend will become one with time. The final couplet reaffirms the poet's hope that as long as there is breath in mankind, his poetry too will live on, and ensure the immortality of his muse. Interestingly, not everyone is willing to accept the role of Sonnet 18 as the ultimate English love poem. As James Boyd-White puts it: What kind of love does 'this' in fact give to 'thee'? We know nothing of the beloved's form or height or hair or eyes or bearing, nothing of her character or mind, nothing of her at all, really. This 'love poem' is actually written not in praise of the beloved, as it seems, but in praise of itself. Death shall not brag, says the poet; the poet shall brag. This famous sonnet is on this view one long exercise in self-glorification, not a love poem at all; surely not suitable for earnest recitation at a wedding or anniversary party, or in a Valentine. (142)Note that James Boyd-White refers to the beloved as "her", but it is almost universally accepted by scholars that the poet's love interest is a young man in sonnets 1-126. Sonnets 18-25 are often discussed as a group, as they all focus on the poet's affection for his friend. For more on how the sonnets are grouped, please see the general introduction to Shakespeare's sonnets. For more on the theme of fading beauty, please see Sonnet 116. How to cite this article:______ Even More...  Shakespeare in Old English?
Shakespeare's Influence on Other Writers An Elizabethan Christmas Clothing in Elizabethan England Queen Elizabeth: Shakespeare's Patron King James I of England: Shakespeare's Patron The Earl of Southampton: Shakespeare's Patron Going to a Play in Elizabethan London Ben Jonson and the Decline of the Drama Publishing in Elizabethan England Shakespeare's Audience Religion in Shakespeare's England Alchemy and Astrology in Shakespeare's Day Entertainment in Elizabethan England London's First Public Playhouse Shakespeare Hits the Big Time
|
More to Explore
Introduction to
Shakespeare's Sonnets Shakespearean Sonnet
Style How to Analyze a Shakespearean Sonnet The Contents of the Sonnets in Brief Shakespeare's Sonnets: Q & A Theories Regarding the Sonnets Are Shakespeare's Sonnets Autobiographical? Shakespeare's Scandal in 1601 Petrarch's Influence on Shakespeare Themes in Shakespeare's Sonnets Shakespeare's Treatment of Love Shakespeare's Most Famous Love Quotes The Order of the Sonnets The Date of the Sonnets Shakespeare and the Earl of Southampton Who was Mr. W. H.? Are all the Sonnets addressed to two Persons? Who was The Rival Poet? _____
_____ Shakespeare on Jealousy Shakespeare on Lawyers Shakespeare on Lust Shakespeare on Marriage Shakespeare on Sleep
|
A sonnet is in verse form and has fourteen lines of iambic pentameter. Shakespeare's sonnets follow the pattern "abab cdcd efef gg", and Petrarch's sonnets follow the pattern "abba abba cdecde." All the lines in iambic pentameter have five feet, consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one. For a more detailed look at iambic pentameter with examples, please ©1999-2021 Shakespeare Online. All Rights Reserved.