Critical appreciation of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18.

Answer: Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18: “Shall I Compare thee to a Summer’s Day?” is the poet’s great tribute to his friend. This sonnet is a famous one of Shakespeare’s sonnets cycles consisting of 154 pieces. The sonnet does not clearly state who the young man is but a reading of the poet’s sonnets in general would direct our attention to the Earl of Southampton. The diction and language of the poem are ornate and pictorial. The sonnet has musical quality and intensity of feelings. It is dramatic and logical in presentation of the subject. It is divided into three quatrains and a concluding couplet. The rhyme scheme of the sonnet is: abab, cdcd, efef, gg. All these suggest that the sonnet is a typical Shakespearean sonnet.

Shakespeare glorifies the beauty of his friend. The poem begins dramatically with a question addressed to the poet's friend: “ Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?”  Summer is traditionally held beautiful in England. The season stands for youth, vivacity, energy, fragrance, color, softness, and warmth.  But the poet goes on with complete self-assurance that his friend is ‘more lovely and more temperate’ than the season. The poet laboriously points out some imperfections of the season in order to highlight the perfection of his friends’ beauty.   Thus the sweet flowers of this season are shaken by rough winds. The season is brief too.  Again often the scorching heat of the sun works badly upon the season and decreases the lustre. The poet makes a general statement:

“And every fair from fair sometimes declines

 By chance for Nature's changing course untrimmed…”

Everything is, by nature or by accident, subject to decay and destruction. In contrast, the poet self confidently declares that the beauty of his friend will not fade away, because it is “eternal summer” or everlasting youth. In fact, it will remain so intact that even death will not be able to snatch it away. It is his sonnet which will transmit the fact of his friend’s beauty from generation to generation:

“So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,

So long live this, and this gives lives to thee.”

The eternal summer of the poet’s friend is created by the poet’s verse. As the sonnet is written as a tribute to his friend’s beauty, the future readers will come to know this fact whenever they will read it. Here the poet stresses the poet of poetry that can conquer time, a theme that he touches in many other sonnets. In fact, time is one of Shakespeare’s most consistently developed themes. It is said that the word “time” appears as many as seventy-eight times in sonnets 1-126. Time has a capacity to destroy. But the poet is sure his verse will defy the destructive quality of time and immortalize the beauty of his friend.

This sonnet is written in a subjective mood and the second person address suggests intimacy and closeness of the poet with his friend. Shakespeare uses some evocative images that have been very effective to express his mood, for instance “the darling buds of May”, “summer’s lease”, “the eye of heaven”, and “the eternal summer”. Several expressions have brevity and precision, such as: “And every fair from fair sometimes declines”. The poet shows mastery and craftsmanship in using flowery and musical language. The direct address to the fiend, the shift from one idea to another, and the intensity of mood suggest the sonnet’s dramatic quality. In this sonnet, Shakespeare seems to be fully conscious of his greatness as a poet, He knew that his sonnet would be read generation after generation.

Watch Bengali Lecture on Sonnet 18 from Cloud School Pro