The sonnet I chose to blog about is sonnet 18. Shakespeare starts off this sonnet complimenting the girl in the poem comparing her to a "summer's day." In line 2, he actually says she is better than a summer's day. As the poem progresses, Shakespeare continues to compare the girl to summer. He says she is better because summer goes by fast and her beauty will last forever. In couplet, Shakespeare writes, "So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, so long lives this, and this gives life to thee." The central theme in this sonnet is the woman's beauty will last forever and this gives life to him.
Like all sonnets, this poem is fourteen lines organized into three quatrains followed by a couplet which has two lines. In this sonnet, the first quatrain is meant to compliment the girl. She is compared to all the positive things about summer. However, in the second quatrain, Shakespeare questions summer. He says that it is often too hot and nature can sometimes be cruel. In the third quatrain, Shakespeare states that summer is not eternal and isn't something that should be taken for granted. He writes that the girl's beauty will forever be beautiful and this fuels him to live at the end of the poem in the couplet.
This sonnet is very similar to most of Shakespeare's sonnets because the underlying theme is love. In most of his sonnets, the appearance of the woman or her beauty, does not matter in order to love her. There are a few where Shakespeare does not love the girl because she isn't very beautiful but that is rare. Shakespeare says that for as long as men breathe and see, his love for her lives on forever and gives life to him.