William Shakespeare captures the true meaning of love and beauty. Shakespeare has written many great poems in his time. This sonnet is one of the most beautiful verses in the English language. Shakespeare is comparing his adored love to a summer’s day. When one hears about love and beauty in his sonnet, one can feel the intensity that most people do not understand the true meaning of. In sonnet 18, William Shakespeare uses metaphor and imagery of a summer’s day to preserve his lover’s beauty.
Shakespeare uses metaphor to describe his adored love. Shakespeare writes, “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day / Thou art more lovely and more temperate” (1-2). In this metaphor, he is comparing the lover’s beauty to a summer’s day, but he is trying to compare it to only the good parts of summer. Sometimes in summers, it is either excessively hot or a bit colder than people would prefer. Summer has its downs and that is why he goes on to say that the lover is more lovely and temperate. Summer ends so quickly but his lover’s beauty is eternal.
Furthermore, Shakespeare uses imagery to awaken in the reader a more distinct feeling that he associates with summer. He writes, “Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May / And summer’s lease hath all too short a date” (Shakespeare 3-4). Shakespeare paints for the reader the image of strong gusts of wind that break the fragile attributes of summer and his love. He refers to quarrels or cooling of feelings, which probably herald the end of a fleeting romance. Additionally, Shakespeare emphasizes his regret by referring to the shortness of summer.
Shakespeare also uses metaphor to convey the changing feelings that love evokes in him. He writes, “Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines, / And often is his gold complexion dimm’d” (Shakespeare 5-6). And then continues, “And every fair from fair sometime declines, / By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d” (Shakespeare 7-8). Thus, the author compares the changes in the feelings and moods of lovers with the unrest of nature. They alternate between joy and sadness in their relationship, which is associated with changing natural conditions. Additionally, the poet uses imagery in the fifth line to convey how bright and hot the shining is sometimes, as well as the joy of love. This helps Shakespeare describe to the reader how blazing love is for him.
Further, the poet uses metaphors to compare the constancy of his feelings for the object of love with the ongoing day and summer. Shakespeare writes, “But thy eternal summer shall not fade, / Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;” (9-10). Thus, he notes that while the summer and the day end, the love remains unchanged. It is as an endless warm summer and as an unceasing bright day. The poet also emphasizes that these feelings will not pass, in contrast to changeable natural conditions. Despite the unrest and difficulties, love as the highest beauty will exist forever.
Shakespeare then uses metaphor to convey his relationship to love as an object that he will keep in himself and his work. He writes, “Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade, / When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:” (Shakespeare 11-12). With these lines, using a metaphor, the poet emphasizes that love will always shine and warm people. It is like endless summer and a constant day, it exists independently of external conditions and never disappears. Shakespeare emphasizes with a metaphor how constant love is, in contrast to the seasons and time of day. The author also emphasizes that poets will not stop singing this feeling in their works, which will be a manifesto of its constancy.
Finally, in the last lines, the poet also uses metaphor and imagery to convey deep feelings about love and its eternal existence. Shakespeare writes, “So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, / So long lives this, and this gives life to thee” (13-14). In this case, Shakespeare uses a metaphor comparing actual breathing and seeing with life in general. He uses imagery to associate these actions with the fundamentals of the existence and functioning of human beings. Thus, the poet emphasizes that love will live as long as humanity exists. Shakespeare concludes that love is the source of life, but also impossible without it. Thus, these are two interrelated phenomena that exist in parallel and inseparably one from the other.
Shakespeare uses such literary devices as metaphor and imagery to convey the beauty and nature of love. In particular, the author compares love with summer and day to show its duration and constancy. He notes that love, in contrast to the seasons or the time of day, does not come to an end, although it has its ups and downs. Most importantly, Shakespeare refers to the poetic image of love as the basis for the life and activity of literary art.
Work Cited
Shakespeare, William. Sonnet 18: Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day? Poetry Foundation, Web.