Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare

today we're looking at sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare before we begin it'll be helpful to make a few comments about the Shakespearean sonnet form itself Shakespeare popularized this on it in the late 16th century early 17th century wrote over 150 of them and they are widely regarded as some of the greatest expressions in the English language the first thing to note about the Shakespearean sonnet is that it is fourteen lines divided into three quatrains three series of four lines in a rhyming couplet indented at the end the sonnet carries a strict rhyme scheme throughout a b a b c d c d e f e f and then the rhyming couplet GG the meter of a Shakespearean sonnet is iambic pentameter it's the preferred meter of Shakespeare's work so if we scan the opening line shall I compare thee to a summers day shall I compare the two summers day so you see the I am the accented second syllable repeated for five feet five occurrences making it I am back pentameter and in addition to a sort of formal organization with the three quatrains and the rhyming couplet the 14 lines Shakespeare included a sort of logical organization to the content of the poem so the form and structure follows a rigid formula the content tended to follow a similar system the first eight lines the first two quatrains presents a question a central dilemma a central comparison a proposal a statement of some kind and expounds on that for eight lines at line nine is what's called the turn where the speaker turns from the question to the answer or from the proposal to the suggestion from the central statement to a complication or a response to or an extension of that statement in the final quatrain notice in sonnet 18 that turn begins with the pivoting word but shall I compare thee to a summers day he continues for eight lines at line nine he turns and says but thy eternal summer shall not fade so the first eight lines presents the question the tentative answers at line nine he turns and then in the couplet he provides a final answer for a resolution or a summary statement on the poem itself eight to four to two in the Renaissance in which Shakespeare wrote the sonnet form was an extremely popular form of poetry John Donne later in his metaphysical poems his holy sonnets will use this on it form to much success but today we'll look at son at 18 and we'll go line by line shakespeare's speaker here opens line one with a proposition a question shall I compare thee to a summers day so you have a speaker speaking directly to his beloved it's unclear whether this was a young woman or a young man but here we have the speaker proposing something to his beloved and what he's proposing is a treatment of her loveliness and her beauty thou art more lovely and more temperate her virtues and her qualities he compares to a feature of nature shall I compare thee to a summers day and this reminds us of pastoral poetry such that such as Marlowe uses to great effect in the passionate shepherd Robert Herrick uses into the virgins to make much of time this this idea of nature as idyllic nature as lovely grand overwhelming and therefore he can exalt his beloved's loveliness by comparing it to a feature of nature it also aggrandize 'as his beloved it makes her seem grand exalted that his love for her rises above the beauty of nature in this grand way shall I compare thee to a summers day he offers the question and then he'll go on to answer it thou art more lovely and more temperate the repetition of more their sets her up in an elevated state that her loveliness and her temperance exceeds that of the natural world a perfect summer day it's an odd thing to have said thou art more lovely and more temperate that word temperate their meaning moderate or mild she is not given to extremes she's steady or consistent constant this will be a theme or an idea that Shakespeare will develop in the following lines that you are balanced steady constant that you are more lovely than a summers day and more consistently so in fact he'll move into at the turn to discuss her eternality he continues rough winds do shake the Darling Buds of May right the the winds of spring threatened these blooming blossoms rough winds shake the Darling Buds of May and summers lease hath all too short a date the time is fleeting the Latin expression Tempus Fugit comes to mind he's describing nature the Darling Buds of May are shaken by the wind summer is all too short spring moves to summer which moves to fall which moves to winter it is not constant it is not consistent it is ever given over to change imbalance swayed to the extremes he continues on here headline 5 sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines the eye of heaven being the Sun sometimes it shines too hot often is his gold complexion dimm'd you see the contrast there sometimes it is too bright too hot and then sometimes it is too dim to darkened and then he makes a quite intriguing statement here every fair from fair sometime declines meaning everything of beauty will at some point diminish in its beauty every fair thing from its fairness will decline summers lease is too short the Sun shines too hotly or it is too dimmed rough winds come and shake the Darling Buds of May that the natural world it seems is not an adequate comparison for his beloved because she is more lovely than all these things and she's also more temperate she's more even more balanced more consistent every fair from fair sometime declines by chance or nature's changing course untrimmed nature and the course it takes changes constantly it ages flowers wilt summers fade Beauty wrinkles he says every fair from fair sometime declines by chance something occurs something happens out of the ordinary to make it decline or just simply I'm nature's changing course the movement of time we're reminded we're reminded of Andrew Marvell's poem to his coy mistress where he says but at my back I always hear times winged chariot hurrying near time presses all of us forward nature time age is an ever-changing course Robert Herrick and to the Virgin says gather ye rosebuds while ye may old time is still a flying and this same flower that smiles today tomorrow will be dying that is the process of the natural world and so here he reaches his turn this is true of the natural world he says but but thy eternal summer shall not fade but somehow his beloved is exempt from nature's changing course by having a summer that is eternal and we need to pause and consider the problem of an eternal summer that what happens if you have all pleasure and no pain if you have all summer in the winter all youth and no aging all joy and no adversity is that human any longer is that possible is that too idyllic an eternal summer that shall never fade he ascribes it to his beloved shall I compare thee to a summers day it seems like he can't because summers days are too short they're too hot they change they decline he says you have an eternal summer that shall not fade the eternal summer shall not fade nor lose possession of that fair that thou dost the fairness that she owns he says she will never lose even though right up here he says every fair from fair sometime declines but here he says not you the eternal summer shall not fade nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st nor shall death right if she has an eternal summer then death cannot brag that thou wand'rest in his shade right at this turn he's shifted his focus from nature in the first to quatrains to his love in the final quatrain nature is inconstant nature changes goes through permutations alters transforms grows but thy eternal summer shall not fade nor lose possession of that fair thou host nor shall death brag thou wand'rest in his shade this reminds us of Psalm 23 yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil he says you will not walk through the valley of the shadow of death you will not wander in the shade of death when and here he sets up his couplet when in eternal lines there's the repeat of eternality he's saying even the glory of heaven and earth the sky the Sun all of this sways to extremes all the changes you have an eternal youthfulness and an eternal loveliness an eternal summer when in eternal lines what are these eternal lines - time thou grow'st stat as time moves her beauty her loveliness will only grow it won't decline every fair from fair sometime declines but here he says you will not lose possession of that fair death shall not brag that thou wand'rest in his shade when in eternal lines to time thou grow'st see his argument here when in eternal lines to time thou grow'st sternal summer shall not fade nor lose possession of that fair nor shall death brag thou wand'rest in his shade so the couplet answers the final answer for what is meant here by these eternal lines as time moves your beauty will grow in eternal lines what does he mean so long as men can breathe or eyes can see so long lives this and this gives life to thee it would seem everything depends on what is the this as long as men can breathe and eyes can see as long as time is working and men are breathing and seeing so long lives this as long as men can breathe breathe or eyes can see so long lives this and this gives life to thee it seems that this he's referring to are the eternal lines that allow her to grow in beauty with time so long lives this these eternal lines that as time goes as men can breathe as eyes can see you will grow not decline not dim not be cut too short not change it seems like the eternal lines would be the sonnet itself that she will live in perfect youth and beauty forever in his sonnet because here we are 400 plus years later reading sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare and what are we doing we are collectively considering contemplating pondering the loveliness and the temperance and the beauty of this beloved this person that their beauty continues to live continues to flourish these lines are eternal because as long as men can breathe or eyes can see then they can live and see and read this sonnet and when they read this on it these fourteen lines these eternal lines give life to the speaker's beloved they are reborn upon every reading of this sonnet this gives life to thee that even though the beloved's physical beauty has indeed dimmed and declined the body does age times winged chariot always presses at our backs toward the grave that even though the physical body and physical beauty physical loveliness does submit to the dictates of time it does wither and fade and age the speaker here says in art in poetry in a sonnet beauty and loveliness can grow increase and expand and enlarge this beloved their physical experience their physical life might have been restricted to a town in England in the 16th 17th century and yet how many people over the centuries since this sonnet has been written how many people reading it today are considering this person's loveliness and ud indeed they have grown their loveliness and their beauty is now something that anyone who reads this on it is capable of pondering capable of beholding at least in the imagination and you have to wonder if that was the speaker's point that art preserves life capturing this beloved's loveliness in a sonnet is a way to defeat death a way to defeat the grave it's the same with a portrait or a sculpture or a photograph that you are able to capture something and freeze it in time so that that loveliness and that beauty can endure forever despite nature's changing course despite the hurrying chariot of time so the speaker's proposition shall I compare thee to a summers day thou art more lovely and more temperate takes on new meaning by the end that the beloved's loveliness and beauty is consistent constant unchanging but in a whole different way within the lines the eternal lines of poetry itself as long as men can see and read this on it then the beloved will endure and live and rise and therefore the cycle of life is renewed every time they are reborn upon every reading if we were to put down the sonnet and pick it up again a year from now the beloved's beauty and loveliness would still be an eternal summer that she'll not fade a fair that she will never lose possession of she will never wander in the bragging shade of death because art poetry preserves life creates eternity the closest thing we have to eternity in our human world that flees and grows and fades all too quickly the closest thing we have to creating eternal beauty this side of heaven as frail finite creatures is to capture distill frame that beauty in the eternal lines of poetry

Channel: Mr. Huff's Literature Class

Views: 263,503

Keywords: sonnet 18, william shakespeare, shakespeare, literary analysis, sonnet, poem, poetry, literature, British literature, renaissance, shakespearean sonnet, mr. huff, annotation, teaching

Id: S5SSHepoJBA

Length: 20min 28sec (1228 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 02 2017