Dominant Image in Sonnet 18: Critical Analysis

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Sonnet 18 was written by the English poet William Shakespeare, that articulates and emphasizes the sentiment of love. The poem expresses the poets endearment and perpetual devotion to his subject, and how the subject surpasses all tangible beauty. He explicitly expresses this notion through the manipulation and application of figurative language, poetic devices, and imagery. The poet discusses his subject, possessing characteristics surpassing nature, and how said nature and its seasons of summer/spring are perennial.

The Poet elaborates on the splendor of art, flora, and the timelessness of love and admiration. Change is an inevitable prospect, yet, it does not hinder the poets veneration for their subject of love, as the subject exceeds nature and any tangible notion of time. Love and admiration are palpable emotions that are expansively elaborated in the poem. He smolders the subject with adulation, inquiring, ‘Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate:’ inquiring whether a comparison of this subject to a ‘summer’s day,’ is appropriate, or even worthy of an analogy, as the poets subject possesses attributes that transcend that of a venerable identity. Their approbation is almost other-worldly.

Figurative language, such as the use of metaphors is a discerning and perceptible technique integrated. The author purposefully manipulates this feature to guide the audiences consideration of the sentiment of the poem. E.g. ‘But thy eternal summer shall not fade,’ he cultivates the use of a metaphor that does inveterate the main human subject and summer will habitually prevail, and the timelessness of love is perpetual, despite emotional destruction by nature and the inevitable change of season, to which the use of this metaphor inveterate his notion. A marvelous further use of personification is evident in line four, utilized to further enhance the imagery consigned  And summer’s lease hath all too short a date: Physically, summer cannot lease, time, objects or tangible substances, yet its inferred that he feels as though the time summer has chartered, is too brief, and he qualms that there will be detrimental effects succeeding the aftermath of Summer. In line 11, Nor shall Death brag thou wanderest in his shade, the poet establishes his notion that the sonnet itself is an assurance that this person’s magnificence will be unrelenting, and their distinction defies even the claws of death.

Assonance and repetition are noteworthy attributes within most lines, which contribute to the constitution and soundscape: shake/May, eye/shines, fair from fair, chance/changing, remaining consistent and ensuring engagement and diversity within the devices utilized. Sonnet 18 depicted the intensity of spring, and summer, the environment associated with these seasons, and his perennial admiration for the subject, yet I felt discontented with the conclusion of the mellow, and heartfelt season. The imagery and use of metaphors bequeath a delightful sentiment, one robust, passionate, and eternal. The author certainly accomplished his goal of embracing and elaborating on his admiration and love for the subject of his affection. Undeniably, he sought to articulate this powerful sentiment, and invoke these feelings within the audience. This concentrated excitement is to be perceived as exhilarating or heartfelt and mellow. The subject’s raison d’etre is evidence to indicate that in one’s mentality, benevolence, and love are in the ingenuity and generation of thought.

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