Shakespeare's Sonnet 18: A Brief Critical Analysis

Jan 16, 2011
Fred Hasson

William Shakespeare - Public domain

One of Shakespeare's most famous works, Sonnet 18 is a mixture of Elizabethan language and style with typically Shakespearean irony and wit.

Sonnet 18, By William Shakespeare

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

And summer's lease hath all too short a date:

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,

And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;

And every fair from fair sometime declines,

By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;

But thy eternal summer shall not fade

Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;

Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,

When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st:

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

So long lives this and this gives life to thee.

Setting of Sonnet 18

Like all of Shakespeare's sonnets, Sonnet 18 was probably written between 1592 and 1598. The sonnets were written most likely as private poems, never intended for publication. They were originally circulated among Shakespeare's friends and associates.

During Shakespeare's time, the Elizabethan sonnet and its variations were popular among English poets and readers. Typically, the sonnet was written about an idealized woman, from the viewpoint of a smitten fictional (though often autobiographical) narrator. The series of sonnets into which Sonnet 18 falls (Sonnets 1 through 126), however, is written from the viewpoint of an elder narrator who is enamoured of a beautiful younger man, whom the narrator nonetheless urges to marry so that his ideal beauty will be perpetuated. Critics argue about who this younger man was in reality, but it isn't important to the poem. Many critics refer to the subject as "she," despite the commonly-held critical belief that it was a man.

Sonnet 18 Formulated Around a Question

Here's how the poem breaks down:

"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" It's one of the most recognizable lines in literature. But immediately upon asking it, the poet begins a demonstration of why such a comparison is a bad idea. First of all, the beloved is more lovely and temperate than any summer's day. Summer can be beset by inhospitable weather and, furthermore, is too short anyway. That's the first quatrain.
The narrator advances the conceit (an elaborate, extended metaphor) from meteorological to personal and human. Sometimes summer is too hot, and often the sun doesn't shine. And anyway, says the poet, beautiful weather sooner or later changes for the worse. Likewise, the comparison implies, human beauty is also doomed to fade. That's the second quatrain; it sets up the third.
Finally, the metaphor reaches fruition in human terms. But there the parallel stops. "Thy eternal summer shall not fade," the poet says to his subject. Why? Because the poet has celebrated his beloved in verse, which is eternal and will live timelessly. That's the third quatrain.
As long as man exists this poem will exist and will thereby celebrate the subject's beauty. Thus the closing couple summarizes and restates the theme of the poem.

The power of poetry to immortalize its subjects has been a favorite topic of poets through the ages. Obviously, it is more of a consolation to the poet than to the subject.

A Celebration of Shakespeare, by Shakespeare

As in other sonnets, Shakespeare toys with the form. Elizabethan sonnets were rife with overstated similes from which we, today, take many of our parodies. "Her eyes are like the stars, her hair is like spun gold, her breath is like the spring air, her teeth...." And so on.

Shakespeare begins with a similar juxtaposition: I'll compare my love to a summer's day. He then shows how that summer's day is inferior to his love, thus demonstrating his wit as well as showing that he's quite capable of working in the popular poetic tradition. His question might well be, "Shall I contribute one more poem to this sonnet tradition, exactly like all the others? Maybe by comparing my love to a summer's day?" No, instead Shakespeare would go beyond the established tradition. Ironically, the poet never writes one line actually describing his beloved.

Ultimately, Sonnet 18 is about the poetic process. Like every great poet, Shakespeare takes the tradition and turns it on its head. Rather than answer the question upon which the poem is predicated - "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" - he shows why the question is immaterial. In doing so, he shows off his ability to work within the tradition and, ultimately, to go beyond it.

Limitations of the Sonnet Form

While a sonnet must necessarily be clear, focused, and quick to unfold, the form is limited by its very brevity. The best – including many of Shakespeare's – usually involve a closely observed conceit finished with a smartly turned, often ironic concluding couplet.

Shakespeare has often been accused of finishing his sonnets with tacked-on finishing couplets that don't live up to their preceding quatrains. Whether Sonnet 18 falls into this criticism is up to the reader to decide.