Sonnet 18 Themes

Themes and Meanings (Critical Guide to Poetry for Students)

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As in his plays, Shakespeares sonnet introduces several themes reflecting Renaissance thought. The
most important of those here is the belief that everything under the moon was corrupted by Adams fall
from grace. Thus, although the sun (the eye of heaven) moved in an uncorrupted sphere above the
moon, the earthly influence upon its shining could make it either too hot (line 5) or too hazy (line 6). A
corollary of this fall was the consequent mutability of the sublunary creation. For Shakespeare the
change was not lateral; rather, it involved a progressive degeneration of beauty, created by chance or by
the influence of time on nature (lines 7, 8).

In Shakespeares Sonnet 18, one may thus discern Renaissance beliefs about nature. One can also see
remnants of medieval thinking. This combination appears most obviously in the poets treatment of the
Ovidian tradition. The Middle Ages had interpreted Ovid (43 b.c.e.-17c.e.) as a moral poet whose
Metamorphoses (c. 8 c.e.) contained a cosmology based on Greek and Roman myths. The Renaissance,
on the other hand, saw him as an erotic poet whose Amores (c. 20 b.c.e.; Loves) and Ars Amatoria (c. 2
b.c.e.; Art of Love) provided the model for Petrarch and later sonneteers.

In Sonnet 18 one finds both the moral and erotic suggested in the words lovely, darling, and fair.
Emphasis on the physical beauty of the person addressed is tempered by hints that this beauty
outshines that of the natural universe itself; through the poets lines, it becomes one with Platos
eternal forms. Missing from this sonnet, however, is that part of the Petrarchan tradition that sees the
lover complaining of his mistresss rejection and displaying his own despair or resolution resulting from
it. In its place one finds the central theme of mutability, the imperfection and impermanence of the
sublunary world, infusing the first eight lines and providing the foil for the rest of the poem.

In contrast to the mutability theme, the concluding sestet proclaims Shakespeares art as the antidote to
time and change. The poets consciousness of his own genius, although placed here within a tradition
maintained by several of his predecessors, transcends the limitations of the fallen world. Ars longa, vita
breve (art is long, life is brief) becomes the underlying theme, arrayed in Shakespeares unique and
comprehensive poetic language.

This sonnet is certainly the most famous in the sequence of Shakespeares sonnets; it may be the most
famous lyric poem in English. Among Shakespeares works, only lines such as To be or not to be and
Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo? are better-known. This is not to say that it is at all the
best or most interesting or most beautiful of the sonnets; but the simplicity and loveliness of its praise of
the beloved has guaranteed its place.

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.
Summer is incidentally personified as the eye of heaven with its gold complexion; the imagery
throughout is simple and unaffected, with the darling buds of May giving way to the eternal
summer, which the speaker promises the beloved. The language, too, is comparatively unadorned for
the sonnets; it is not heavy with alliteration or assonance, and nearly every line is its own self-contained
clausealmost every line ends with some punctuation, which effects a pause.

Sonnet 18 is the first poem in the sonnets not to explicitly encourage the young man to have children.
The procreation sequence of the first 17 sonnets ended with the speakers realization that the young
man might not need children to preserve his beauty; he could also live, the speaker writes at the end of
Sonnet 17, in my rhyme. Sonnet 18, then, is the first rhymethe speakers first attempt to preserve
the young mans beauty for all time. An important theme of the sonnet (as it is an important theme
throughout much of the sequence) is the power of the speakers poem to defy time and last forever,
carrying the beauty of the beloved down to future generations. The beloveds eternal summer shall
not fade precisely because it is embodied in the sonnet: So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
the speaker writes in the couplet, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

A Shakespearean Sonnet in Iambic Pentameter

This is a classic Shakespearean sonnet with fourteen lines in very regular iambic pentameter. With the
exception of a couple relatively strong first syllables (and even these are debatable), there are basically
no deviations from the meter. There arent even any lines that flow over into the next line every single
line is end-stopped. There are two quatrains (groups of four lines), followed by a third quatrain in which
the tone of the poem shifts a bit, which is in turn followed by a rhyming couplet (two lines) that wraps
the poem up. The rhyme scheme is ABAB CDCD EFEF GG.

The form of this sonnet is also notable for being a perfect model of the Shakespearean sonnet form. Just
as in older Italian sonnets by which the English sonnets (later to be called Shakespearean sonnets) were
inspired, the ninth line introduces a significant change in tone or position. Here Shakespeare switches
from bashing the summer to describing the immortality of his beloved. This poem also has the uniquely
English twist of a concluding rhyming couplet that partially sums up and partially redefines what came
before it. In this case, the closing lines have the feel of a cute little poem of their own, making it clear
that the poets abilities were the subject of this poem all along.

Dont be fooled, though: beyond the form, this is not your stereotypical sonnet. The main reason is that
sonnets, at least before Shakespeare was writing, were almost exclusively love poems. Certainly this
poem has some of the qualities of a love poem, but, to say the least, this poem isnt just a poets
outpouring of love for someone else. Check out the "Love" theme for more on that.

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.