Summary
FIRST QUATRAIN
The poem opens with a question asked by the speaker. The speaker asks the beloved whether he should compare him to a summer day. The next line announces the comparison and says that the beloved is lovelier than a summer day. Moreover, the summer day is extreme, while the beloved is better because he is temperate. The speaker furthers this comparison and says that the darling buds sprouting in May are shaken by the forceful winds that blow in the summer. Furthermore, the lease of summer is also not very long. It is very short-lived.
SECOND QUATRAIN
The next quatrain opens with the description of yet another flaw in summer’s beauty. During summer, the sun shines very brightly, and it is very hot. The pleasant weather does not stay. Similarly, the sunshine is sometimes very faint, and the weather gets cold.
Having described the numerous flaws in the summer’s beauty, the speaker reflects on the nature of beauty in general. He says that every beautiful thing is destined to see a decline in its charm one day. The reason for this decline may vary, but the decline is guaranteed. Sometimes, it is the bearing of luck and chance, which results in the fading of prettiness. Other times, it is the working of time and nature, which brings old age. This way, no beautiful thing escapes the clutches of future decline.
THIRD QUATRAIN
The first line of the third quatrain directly addresses the beloved and tells him that his beauty is eternal. It will never fade. The speaker tells him that you should not be afraid of losing the charm that you have now. Time will never be able to take it from you. Similarly, death will also fail in dispossessing him of his beauty. The shadows of death will never be able to take him under their control. The speaker says that you will keep on growing in the eternal lines he is saying. These lines do not come under the influence of time and will be able to remain in the world till the end of time.
COUPLET
The last two lines of the sonnet describe the reason behind the immortality of the beloved’s beauty. The speaker says that as long as the human race remains here in this world, his lines will be read. With the reading of these lines, the beauty of the beloved described in these lines will remain in this world. This way, the speaker claims that he has given immortality to the beauty of the beloved.
THEMES IN SONNET 18
ADMIRATION
Throughout the whole poem, the speaker talks about the beauty of his beloved. He admires the beauty of his beloved in different ways throughout the three quatrains. He starts by asking his beloved whether he should compare him with a summer day or not.
The comparison starts from the very next line, where the speaker mentions the limitation of summer in comparison to his beloved. He says that a summer day is either too cold or too hot, depending on the sunshine. On the other hand, his beloved is temperate and does not go to extremes. The speaker also claims that his beloved is lovelier than a summer day.
The speaker furthers his admiration by juxtaposing his beloved’s beauty with the beauty of other mortal things. He says that summer is too short and fades away into autumn. Similarly, all the other things in the world are going to lose their charm. They are either going to face some accident or fall into the arms of the inevitable death.
This admiration of the beloved’s beauty is enhanced in the poem by the use of superior metaphors. The speaker uses metaphor like “eye of heaven” in comparison with his beloved beauty to show that his beloved’s beauty is not an ordinary thing.
CRUELTY OF NATURE
Nature is depicted as a harsh and cruel antagonist in this poem. The speaker says that the harsh winds shake the darling buds during May. This depicts that elements of nature are always bent upon damaging the beautiful objects in the world. Moreover, the two extremes of sunshine during summer deprive the humans of the pleasant weather. It is the working of the cruel nature that does not let humans have fun in this world.
Similarly, the speaker mentions how every fair thing is destined to lose its fairness in its interaction with natural cycles. Nature is filled with such dangers that can snatch the beauty of anything at any time.
Furthermore, death is depicted as a boastful antagonist in the poem. It is one of the agents of cruel nature that puts an end to the beauty of many things. It does not let humans enjoy their life and snatches it from them.
INEVITABILITY OF DEATH
The poem highlights the idea that no one can escape death. Everyone, no matter how powerful they are, is going to fall into this pit called grave. This idea is first developed in the poem by the description of the short-lived summer. The speaker says that summer has a very short span of time and will soon end.
This idea is then developed, and the speaker maintains that death serves as the full stop for every entity in the world. Every beautiful thing ceases to exist and turns into dust once the time of death arrives. The speaker, however, promises his beloved to protect him from such a future by immortalizing him in his poetry.
POETRY AS A SOURCE OF IMMORTALITY
In the last couplet of the poem, the speaker tells his beloved about his source of achieving immortality. He tells him that he has immortalized him by writing about his beauty in his poetry. He is sure that people will read his poetry even when they are long gone from this world. When they read his poetry, they will appreciate his beloved’s beauty. In this way, his beloved will remain immortal.
