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:
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 thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this and this gives life to thee
First thing first, I apologize for using such an well-known and over-quoted sonnet. Yet in my defense there are good reasons it's so over-used and well-known. It's beautiful. It's slightly seductive. In little over a hundred words, Shakespeare perfectly captures how every female in the history of females wants to be looked at. Actually, it really surprises me that Shakespeare wasn't more of a player. I figure all he'd have to do would be to say "Thou art more beautiful than a summers day" when he was out in public and all the ladies living in Stratford Upon Avon would be fanning their uncomfortable, corseted bodies in adoration.
So, anyways...
What is it that makes Sonnet 18 so persuasive and so powerful?
Let's look at the actual text:
Structure and Rhyme: If one only looks at the structure and rhyme, there is nothing to differentiate this sonnet from any other. Although I would argue it looks more like rectangle than a square it still follows all the rules to qualify it being a sonnet. The rhyming pattern is very basic as well. It follows the ABABCDCDEFEFGG pattern, which adds to the flowing feel of the poetry. Since it was written by Shakespeare, it's also in iambic pentameter. I'm not going to attempt to explain iambic pentameter in one blog post, but basically it also helps the poem flow well and makes it easier to memorize. In short, "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day" (iambic pentameter) is easier to memorize than "My dear, you somewhat remind me of a day in the middle of summer"(not) It's much catchier too.
Imagery: A lot of the imagery in this sonnet is pretty self-explanatory. One can easily pick out that Shakespeare's use of "summer's day" paints a picture of a beautiful scene and an even more beautiful girl beside it. His choice to use "death's shade" later in the sonnet provides contrast: a dark to the previous light. Yet he keeps his tone uplifting even when discussing death. He promises that death will not touch her beauty. She is immortalized and beautified by his use of imagery.
This is true. What draws people to this particular sonnet is the overlying theme.
If one looks past all the strange Shakespearean words and phrasing to the theme of the poem, it's quite romantic. It's easy to determine that Sonnet 18 is a love poem but if one looks closer they can see that it's also a poem of devotion. Yes, Shakespeare praises this women's beauty, but all women know that beauty fades with age and dies alongside death. Beauty is tangible and worldly and easily lost. This is why Shakespeare is sure to mention that her beauty will never fade or die. So what does this mean, that her beauty will never die? Well perhaps it means that Shakespeare was inspired by one of the vampire girls from Twilight, who will literally never grow old and their beauty will literally never fade. However for the obvious reasons I think this is probably unlikely(I believe we would have seen a verse about sparkling in the sun). I think it's more likely that he was so inspired and in love with his muse for this sonnet, that he managed to see past the usual ideal of beauty (figure, hair, clothing) to the beauty of her soul and spiritual essence. Maybe this is BS. Maybe I'm just an idealistic feminist who holds out hope that there is at least one guy who sees beauty in a w omens personality rather than her features. But this idea that a man can think a women is always beautiful even when her natural beauty fades is what makes this sonnet so attractive. It gives women permission to wear sweatpants and eat bonbons as long as they have a stunning personality because that's what real beauty is.
Or maybe I'm nuts and read too far into things.
But the assignment is to read too far into things so then again maybe I'm golden.
Message to single men:
Honestly the reason you're single is not because of your looks or your body odor or your clothing or your grades. Well it might be. A little. But it's mainly about your communication. Take a lesson from Shakespeare. He was not the most attractive man, but to this day his use of language continues to make women go weak in the knees. So ditch the "Hey baby, how you doing?" and the "Bro, it could be like dope if we could like hook up" and start trying the "Hear my soul speak. Of the very instant that I saw you, Did my heart fly at your service" and the "I love you more than words can wield the matter, Dearer than eyesight, space and liberty". I swear, Shakespeare pick-up lines are flawless.
