Shakespeare_Sonnet_Xvi

Analysis of William Shakespeare’s Sonnet XVIII ‘Shall I compare thee to a Summers day'’ Shakespeare’s sonnet XVIII, also known as ‘Shall I compare thee to a Summers day'’, is one of Shakespeare’s most famous poems and although it can easily be read on its own, it forms part of a collection of 154 sonnets written between mid-1593 and mid-1599 and published in 1609 by Thomas Thorpe (Seymour-Smith, 1963:3-4, 9). The collection of sonnets can be divided into two large sequences: Sonnets 1-126 which are written to a beautiful young man, and Sonnets 127-152, which address a ‘dark lady’ (Schoenfeldt, 2007:128). These sequences can again be divided into smaller and more specific sections but suffice it to say that Sonnet XVIII belongs in the first sequence of sonnets and was originally written to a young man, possibly William Herbert who was also the co-dedicatee of the First Folio of Shakespeare’s plays and who was 16 years Shakespeare’s junior (Schoenfeldt, 2007:126). Despite the intended homoeroticism of the poem[1], today in popular culture it has mainly been used to describe heterosexual love; as in the film Shakespeare in Love (1998) where Shakespeare composes the sonnet after having fallen in love with Viola de Lesseps. It is also used to woo the opposite sex in the film Dead Poets Society (1989) where the sonnet is read by Charlie Nuwanda Dalton to the girls he brings to one of the society’s secret meetings. Finally, and most recently, the sonnet is recited by Peter O’Toole’s character in the emotional bathroom scene in the film Venus (2006). Shakespeare’s sonnets all share a similar pattern and the style has even been termed the ‘Shakespearean Sonnet’ (Cuddon, 1992:895). Sonnet XVIII is made up of 14 lines which are divided into three quatrains (four rhymed lines) and one couplet (two rhymed lines). It has the rhyming pattern ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. Each line has ten syllables with five stresses which is termed ‘iambic pentameter’. Like all sonnets, it has one theme and one subject which on the surface appears to be the comparison of the young man’s beauty to a summer day. Furthermore, it adheres to the rule of the sestet which states that the sestet, the last six lines following the octave, resolves the proposition made in the octave (Cuddon, 1992:861). In Shakespearean sonnets, and also in Sonnet XVIII, it can be argued that the couplet further concludes the claims made in the preceding three quatrains as well as revealing the ‘true’ topic of the sonnet; in this case immortality through art. To thoroughly analyse the sonnet it makes sense to look at each quatrain and the final couplet in detail. The first quatrain commences by asking the young man, to whom the poem is dedicated; ‘Shall I compare thee to a Summers day'’ The question seems rhetorical and it appears that the poet already knows the answer to the analogy. Already, in the second line the answer is given as the poet concedes that the object of the sonnet is much lovelier than a summer day. He is milder or more evenly tempered, as even on summer days winds may blow (line 3)[2]. In line 4 Shakespeare uses the personification that summer holds a too short lease on the year; summer must end and give way to other seasons. Thus, in the first quatrain Shakespeare has given us two arguments as to why the young man’s beauty is superior to that of a summer day; he is lovelier and his beauty will be everlasting, metaphorically speaking. In the second quatrain Shakespeare elaborates on the unpredictability of summer, such as the rough winds mentioned in line 3, by using the metaphor and personification ‘the eye of heaven’ (line 5) to describe the sun and how it sometimes shines too fiercely. In the following line the sun is personified with a ‘gold complexion’ (line 6) which can be dimmed, for example by overcast weather. Line 7 tells us that the beauty of summer wilts – as all beauty will over the course of time (line 8). This declaration serves to prepare us for the immortalisation of the young man in the third quatrain. The third quatrain echoes the first quatrain of the sonnet by making use of the metaphor ‘eternal Summer’ (line 9) to explain how the young man’s beauty will never truly fade. The word ‘eternal’, here pertaining to the young man, marks the opposite of the ephemerality of summer as described in line 4. Furthermore, Shakespeare changes the meaning of summer from something capricious (in the first and second quatrain) to the more familiar notion of summer as something beautiful and vivacious by equating the young man’s beauty to an ‘eternal summer’. Shakespeare’s confidence in the young man’s endurance is solidified in lines 10 and 11 by the use of anaphora (Cuddon, 1992:40); ‘Nor loose possession…’ (line 10) and ‘Nor shall Death…’ (line 11). In line 11 Death is personified by being given the ability to brag – or in actual fact Death will not be able to brag about claiming the young man as Shakespeare has rendered him immortal via this sonnet (line 12). Line 12 serves as a mirror between two parallels as it divides four anaphoric lines; line 10 and 11 as explained above and line 13 and 14 of the couplet (‘So long as men…’ (line 13) and ‘So long lives this...’ (line 14)). Finally, line 12 signals a change in the poem’s form from quatrains to a couplet and leads us to the poem’s conclusion. The couplet repeats Shakespeare’s wish, as expressed in line 12, to preserve the young man in literature. As long as there will be readers of the sonnet (line 13), their appreciation will keep the sonnet ‘alive’, which in turn will ensure the immortality of the young man (line 14). Thus, the sonnet itself becomes personified as something which can give life to something else; in this case the object of the poet’s affection. The subject of immortality through art was popular during the Renaissance[3] and Sonnet XVIII beautifully illustrates this notion. What is unusual about Sonnet XVIII is Shakespeare’s critique of nature in the first and second quatrain. Although he gives another meaning to summer in the third quatrain, it appears more like it is the young man’s beauty which enriches the concept of ‘eternal summer’ rather than the other way around. In effect, Shakespeare is invoking the man versus nature debate. He is criticising nature’s unpredictability and volatile changes while praising the young man’s perpetual beauty. The young man is everything nature is not. At the time of Shakespeare’s writing, and to a great extent also today, women were seen as belonging to ‘nature’ while men represented the world of ‘culture’. Thus, the man versus nature debate could be argued to actually represent a male/female dichotomy. Shakespeare’s Sonnet XVIII could be read as a rationalisation for his homoerotic emotions; women are unpredictable, moody (‘rough windes’(line 3), ‘Sometime too hot’ (line 5) and ‘often is his gold complexion dimm’d’ (line 6)) and mortal (‘lease hath all too short a date’ (line 4)). The young man is exactly the opposite; uncomplicated beauty immortalized through the world of culture. Furthermore, the male/female dichotomy can thus be determined a culture/nature dispute which leads to Shakespeare’s main argument in Sonnet XVIII; culture and art are immortal and ever-lasting while nature is ephemeral and ever-changing. The use of Sonnet XVIII in popular culture and in academic reading and writing today, more than 400 years since it was originally published, shows us that Shakespeare’s promise of immortality through art has indeed been kept. Bibliography: Cuddon, J.A. (1992), Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory, Penguin, London Donne, John, (2006), Selected Poems, Penguin, London Lennard, John (2005), The Poetry Handbook, Oxford University Press, Oxford Schoenfeldt, Michael (2007), ‘The Sonnets’ in Patrick Cheney’s (ed) The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare’s Poetry, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Seymour-Smith, Martin (1963), Shakespeare’s Sonnets, Heinemann, London Unknown author, http://www.shakespeares-sonnets.com/xviiicomm.htm, accessed September 10, 2009 Films: Shakespeare in Love (1998) – Written by Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard, Directed by John Madden, Released by Universal Pictures Dead Poets Society (1989) – Written by Tom Schulman, Directed by Peter Weir, Released by Touchstone Picture Venus (2006) – Written by Hanif Kureishi, Directed by Roger Michell, Released by Free Range Films ----------------------- [1] ‘Intended homoeroticism’ may be too strong a term. It could be a platonic love, although other sonnets in the collection (e.g. Sonnet XX and Sonnet CXLIV) point in the direction of same-sex desire. [2] According to the Elizabethan calendar Maie (May) ended only a few days before midsummer (Seymour-Smith, 1963:123). [3] John Donne’s The Canonization is another great example of achieving immortality through art (Donne, 2006:9)