Sonnet 18

Shakespeare's sonnets are poems that William Shakespeare wrote on a variety of themes.

When discussing or referring to Shakespeare's sonnets, it is almost always a reference to the
154 sonnets that were first published all together in a quarto in 1609.

Sonnet 18 is an English or Elizabethan sonnet, meaning it contains 14 lines, including three

quatrains and a couplet, and is written in iambic pentameter. The poem follows the rhyme
scheme abab cdcd efef gg.

Sonnet 18 contains the elements of a classic sonnet. It is written in 14 lines and contains the
rhyme scheme ababcdcdefefgg. The first and third lines and second and fourth lines rhyme, and
the pattern continues until the last two lines, both of which rhyme. In addition, the poem is
written in iambic pentameter. Each line has 10 syllables, with the first unaccented and the
second accented.

Personification
"Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines"

"And often is his gold complexion dimmed,"

This line states personification as because it is giving human qualities to something non-
human "heaven doesn't have an eye" In this particular line : Using HIS for GOLD. human use for
something non-human.
Shakespeare personifies death by claiming that he will never claim his lover, that they
will never die but live in his heart. He then gives "life" to her through through the poem, and
claiming she will remain immortal on the page.

Metaphors:

The most prominent figure of speech used in “Sonnet 18” is the extended

metaphor comparing Shakespeare's lover to a summer's day throughout the whole sonnet.
Comparing the lover's beauty to an eternal summer, “But thy eternal summer shall not fade”
(line nine) is a metaphor inside the sonnet-long extended metaphor.
Line 1: "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?"
-This metaphor goes throughout the whole poem, Shakespeare goes to show how much
lovelier his beloved is then the comparison really allows.
Line 9: "But thy eternal summer shall not fade" 
-This metaphor suggests that his beloved will always be young to him, that she has a glow and
vitality that is everlasting.

Symbolism:
Throughout the whole poem Summer is being used as a symbol of youth.
The eye of heaven = sun

hyperbole

Generally, we can consider this sonnet like a big hyperbole that aims to explain the perfection
of a friend comparing him to the summer and saying that he is more lovely and durable than
the hot season.

TONE
Sonnet 18 has a tone of admiring, affectionate, and romantic.
Evidence: "Thou art more lovely and temperate"
The sonnet has a mood of dreamy, flirty, and awed.
Evidence:"So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this and this gives life to thee."

THEME

LOVE NEVER DIES.

Evidence: "When in eternal lines to time thou growest."
This quote communicates that the speaker's lover will always be in his/her heart regardless of
what happens.
The major themes in Sonnet 18 are the timelessness of love and beauty, death and immortality,
and in particular the immortality of art and subject matter. In the sonnet Shakespeare begins by
comparing the subject a summer's day, which the reader is meant to take as a lovely thing.

Rhyme
End Rhyme :
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,

And every fair from fair sometime declines,

And often is his gold complexion dimmed,

And every fair from fair sometime declines

By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed:

Internal Rhyme