Sonnet 18, Whats Better than Summer? Sonnet 18 is just one of William Shakespeares 154 brilliantly written sonnets.

William Shakespeares sonnet was published in the year 1609, but was written back around 1593-94. Although, one might think that Shakespeare is writing this sonnet describing a woman, but the one in the sonnet is indeed a man. The sonnet starts out by comparing the loved one to the season of summer, then going on into saying the lover is more divine than human and the work he had written about the lover will surpass time. A sonnet has usually is made up by fourteen lines, it rhymes with a pattern abab cdcd efef gg, and is in iambic pentameter. Now sonnet 18 is an English sonnet (Shakespearian), which is made up by three quatrains that have four lines for each quatrain and after that there is a couplet that consists of two lines. In the first quatrain, it begins by wanting to make a comparison of his lover to a day in the summer. This, in this sense means that he is saying that the lover is smart, passionate, and hot. Then in the very next line Thou art more lovely and more temperate (Line 2). He is taking back his first comparison and saying that the loved one is tender, calmer, and has more beauty than once indicated. He then starts to tell the lover why a summers day is not a good enough example throughout the next two lines. For instance, Rough winds so shake the darling buds of May (line 3) indicates that the roaring winds of the early month of summer can be brutal to gorgeous plants making them look not as good as once before. He then goes into saying that summer may have some of the most beautiful days but it only lasts for a short period of time. So instead of summer he wants to describe something that refers to youth and beauty where it lasts much longer and does not have a designated time frame. If he is intending to say

that the youth lasts forever, he might be thinking that the lover is greater than a normal human and can live forever. In the start of the next quatrain, he begins with saying that sometime in the summer it can be blazing hot because the eye of heaven (line 5) shines more on those days. Otherwise on some other days, clouds can sometimes float into the path of the sun making the earth less beautiful. The point of this metaphor is saying that the lovers beauty is never blocked or unseen. So once again, you can take the hint that he is calling the lover greater than human because he is better than the sun itself since the lovers beauty and youth never gets blocked And often his gold complexion is dimmed(line 6). The next couple of lines in the sonnet says that no matter what everything changes over time; of course in this instance he is referring to things that are beautiful always decline in appeal over time and darken. Much like summer it goes from bright days and then slowly creeps into fall. But thy eternal summer shall not fade (line 9), meaning once again that it will never lose its beauty and last forever. In line 11 and 12 of the sonnet, He says that even death can not take away the lovers early beauty because even as the deathly time goes on the youth will always be inside the lines of his written work. Now in the final couplet he states that So long as men can breathe or eyes can see this gives life to thee (lines 13-14). Is saying that as long as people are on the earth and are living his written work shall last forever holding the eternal youth within it, meaning that if it lives forever it shall indeed be immortal. Now throughout the entire sonnet, Shakespeare is either trying to find something to compare eternal youth too or he is telling us why his previous example is not worthy enough to

describe what he thinks is being God-like. The sonnet like many of his sonnets is influenced by love, he first tries to compare to summer but realized that summer is not perfect in many ways. He describes the youth as perfect and without a single blemish. It can surpass time even when the
body is long gone because it lives inside his sonnet forever and ever.