Sonnet no. 18| Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?| William Shakespeare

Sonnet xviii Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day by William Shakespeare Summary

William Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets, of which 1-126 was about a young man and the rest are about a dark lady. 

So, without a doubt in the sonnet, no 18 Shakespeare addressed his friend, a young man, and compared his beauty with nature. It is said that Shakespeare has written this poem dedicated to his friend, Mr. W. H.

Theme 

The theme of the sonnet is most likely of love and beauty. But in another context, it can also be read as a eulogy. So it can have both a love and death theme. 

Summary

In the first quatrain of the sonnet, the poet asked his beloved friend that if he should compare him to a summer's day.

But, in the very next line poet answered that question himself by saying that, his young friend is more lovely and gentle than summer.

 As harsh winds in summer can destroy the new blown buds of a tree. But his friend is more moderate, more gentle. And the beauty of summer is short-lasting compared to the eternal beauty of his friend.

 "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? 

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

 Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, 

And summer's lease hath all too short a date;"

 In the second quatrain, the poet said compared the short spanning beauty of summer with the eternal beauty of his friend. Sometimes the Sun is too bright for our comfort in summer.

Summer's Day| 

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And often its golden complexion gets overshadowed by dark clouds. And every beautiful thing in this whole world diminishes by chance or by the course of nature. 

"Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, 

And often is his gold complexion dimm'd; 

And every fair from fair sometime declines, 

By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;" 

But the eternal beauty of his young friend will never diminish, will never be faded. Even death will not be able to decrease its eternal shine under its shadow. As his beauty will be eternalized by these lines in the heart of the world. 

"But thy eternal summer shall not fade, 

Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;

 Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade, 

When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st:" 

At last in the couplet, the poet said that, as long as there will be life on this earth, his eternal beauty will live through this verse. 

 "So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, 

 So long lives this, and this gives life to thee." 

Analysis 

In this sonnet, William Shakespeare tried to eternalize the beauty of his beloved friend through the lines. It starts with a rhetorical question, "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?". 

And in the next line poet himself answered that by saying, his friend's beauty is more gentle and long-lasting than summer. 

It is more gentle than the harsh summer breeze and it cannot be overshadowed by dark shadows. Nor, it can be taken under the shawl of death. 

And this sonnet will be read as long as there will be life on this planet and this sonnet in turn will give life to the eternal beauty of his friend. 

Literary device 

This Sonnet is written in iambic pentameter with a rhyme scheme of abab cdcd efef gg. It has three quatrains and one couplet like any other Shakespearian sonnet. 

And it completely follows the rhyme scheme and meter, unlike other sonnets by Shakespeare. The first line of the sonnet is a rhetorical question, 

"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?". 

In the second line he used a diacope by repeating the word, 'more' with some intervening words. He does this again with the word 'fair' in the seventh line of the sonnet. 

In the third line, he personifies 'buds' by using the technique hypallage. In the second quatrain, he uses a metonymy, by substituting the word 'sun', with 'eye of heaven'. 

In this sonnet, he used the rhetorical device anaphora thrice, in the sixth and seventh line by 'And', in the tenth and eleventh line by 'Nor' and in the couplet by 'So'. He also us3s syncope in 'dimm'd', 'untrimm'd', 'ow'st', and in 'grow'st'.

So, these are al relevant literary devices that worked well to increase the quality of the writing.