shakespeare's 18th sonnet
...claims that the lover is “more lovely and more temperate” (2) This implies that though a summer day is good, “you” are even better, even lovelier, and even more temperate. This claim is going to need further evidence, and he goes on to give it by describing the flaws found in summer. Through the rest of the first quatrain and into the second, Shakespeare addresses some of the images that summer evokes. He attributes great beauty to summer because if he did not, comparing another person to it would not be flattering. The difference between the two objects in Shakespeare’s comparison however lay in the fact that summer has flaws. “Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,” (3) his diction begins to uncover the flaws he finds in summer. The word “rough” when used in describing winds has a negative connotation. Though the buds of May are “darling”, the winds that shake them are still rough, and therefore, this line is one revealing summer’s deficiency. “And summer’s lease hath all too short a date”(4) comments that summer, though beautiful as was established before, is “too short”, another negative implication. “too hot the eye of heaven shines, and often is his gold complexion dimmed,” (4-5) is a reference to the sun of summer. Though it has a gold complexion, and gold is often associated with beauty, it is far too hot in the summer months, and often “dimmed”. “Dimmed” and “too hot” are more ways to make his lover superior to summer in terms of loveliness and temperance. By the end of the second quatrain, Shakespeare even strays from the original summer he was comparing the object of the poem to, and focuses on all things “fair”. When Shakespeare writes, “And every fair from fair sometimes declines,” (7) he leaves summer and begins to comment on “every” fair object. Everything that is fair eventually diminishes or becomes less grand, but his love is different. Everything fair declines “By chance or nature’s changing course untrimmed,” (8) but his love is immune to this. By happenstance or by the fate of nature, Shakespeare wants the reader to believe that all things beautiful will eventually fade, except for the one he is writing about. This is evident when he remarks, “But thy eternal summer shall not fade.”(9) The summer that “thy” possesses, that “thy” exemplifies, is far more beautiful than any summer or anything that is fair. The poem begins to change at the end of the third quatrain. Shakespeare has established that summer, though beautiful with its “darling buds of May” and golden eye of summer, is full of faults. The person he is comparing summer to however, possesses none of these flaws, is impervious to these flaws. The object of Shakespeare’s affection is immune to the “changing course” of nature because “thy eternal summer shall not fade.” Shakespeare’s reasoning for this perfection found in another being is the truly intriguing part of the poem. Shakespeare has maintained an image of perfection throughout the sonnet by degrading summer’s beauty and bolstering the lover’s, but his motives for doing so are not entirely altruistic. The third quatrain is where Shakespeare reveals the meaning of his poem. After building up his love as an object of perfection, he begins to divulge the reasoning behind her excellence. Declaring that her beauty will never fade, he then claims, “Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st.”(10) Shakespeare cleverly plays on the word “ow’st”. He makes it seem as if her fairness will never fade because she is a being of total faultlessness, but his play on the word owe gives the line an entirely different meaning. It may be read that she owns a special fairness, or that she owes someone for a special fairness. In context to the later lines of the poem, it makes more sense for the reader to view “ow’st” as owe because it fits more congruently with Shakespeare’s idea that the best part about her is that fact that he is writing a sonnet for her. The reason that she is so beautiful, according to this line, is because Shakespeare has chosen to written about her. He believe that she owes that is all to him. This fact changes the connotation of the poem altogether. It is Shakespeare who makes it possible that “Nor shall death brag thou wand’rest in his shade,” (11) because she will forever live in his lines. This is apparent when he goes on to write, “When in eternal lines to Time thou grow’st.”(12) The key words in line twelve are “eternal lines”. She will never die because Shakespeare has made it so in his poem. She is in the lines, and the poem is about her, giving her immortality. In fact, not only will she survive forever because of his poem, but Shakespeare is brash enough to say that she will grow in time through the poem. To think that an image of perfection could become more splendid, to have the ability to grow even more, is a testament to Shakespeare’s confidence and possible arrogance in the poem. If it was not yet obvious that her splendor is to be credit...