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ANALYSIS OF SHAKESPEARE’S SONNET 18

V. Henriet

Lesson plan

Class:

  • 3rd-4th year student’s
  • Intermediate level

Prerequisites:

  • the class should have already studied Shakespeare’s biography, his main works and should also have a general idea of what a sonnet is.

Lecture organisation:

  • Time: 50 mins.
  • Additional tools needed: overhead projector, one handout of the sonnet for each student in order to allow them to take notes on the text while explaining and showing the PPT slides.

NB: Suggested structure:

  • Introduction: first reading of the sonnet
  • 1st part: information on Shakespeare’s sonnets collection (structure and themes)
  • 2nd part: crucial aspects of the chosen sonnet: themes and main elements
  • Conclusion: guided analysis of Sonnet 18

Texts:

  • Text to be read in class: Sonnet 18
  • Works cited: Shakespeare’s Sonnets Collection.

Objectives:

  • Students will learn the basic structure of an English Sonnet (i.e., the Elizabethan Form)
  • They will learn some figures of speech and how to paraphrase a sonnet
  • Thanks to the visual reinforcement they should more easily remember the sonnet, and its main themes.

Shakespeare, Sonnet 18 – (Valentina Henriet)

The aim of this lesson is to help students understand 1) what a sonnet is 2) some of the messages the Poet wanted to pass down.

NB: in order to “break the ice” it could be a good idea to elicit from the students the meaning of “sonnet”.

Slide 2 – Sonnet 18

The lesson begins with a first reading of Sonnet 18. This should enable students to havea general idea of what a sonnet is and particularly to focus on the subject of the lesson.

Slide 3 – Contextualisation of Sonnet 18

Sonnet 18 is part of Shakespeare’s Sonnets Collection. Most of them were composed in 1590’s, but actually there are evidences of some sonnets written as early as 1580’s. The Collection was published in 1609 (with the exception of Passionate Pilgrims Sonnets published in 1599, a book which contains mostly poems not written by Shakespeare). Most of the sonnets are written in what is called the Elizabethan Form (In addition to the brief notes proposed here, it may be useful to outline the principal differences between the Italian Sonetto form and the Elizabethan Sonnet form).

Slide 4 – Themes

In many of his sonnets, Shakespeare stresses the idea that love outlasts time, and that poetry outlasts love. (cf. E.g. 116; NB: It may be interesting to make students reflect on this idea).In his conception, poetry is never going to fade because poetry is handed down to posterity. Differently from time which flies by, and love that may last longer but is not eternal, poetry is forever.

After dealing with these ideas, one can have a look at the structure of the Sonnets.

Slide 5 – Two groups of sonnets

Shakespeare’s Sonnets are divided into two main groups: the first one is composed of 126 sonnets which are addressed to an unidentified young man who is considered the fair youth (NB: Youth is used here as a noun, not an adjective).The first seventeen of theseurge the young man to marry so that he can pass on his superior qualities to a child, thereby allowing future generations to enjoy and appreciate these qualities when the child becomes a man. In Sonnet 18, Shakespeare alters his viewpoint, saying his own poetry may be all that is necessary to immortalize the young man and his qualities.

The other 28 sonnets are addressed to a mysterious dark lady who is a sensuous, irresistible woman of questionable morals who captivates the poet. References to the dark lady also appear in previous sonnets (35, 40, 41, 42), in which Shakespeare reproaches the young man for an apparent liaison with the dark lady.

Slide 6 – Focus on Sonnets addressed to the young man

These poems express the poet’s love for the young man and claim that the young man’s beauty will be preserved forever. They celebrate the poet’s love for the young man by exploring from all the angles the feelings the young man inspires the poet.

Slide 7 –Focus on Sonnets addressed to the young man

Shakespeare uses his poem as a way to provide the youth with an eternal existence and subsequently makes it evident that Shakespeare sees the young man as more than a human, he sees him as a god. There is a repeated idea of the poetry’s capacity to immortalise.

Slide 8 –Sonnet 18

From here the focus of the lesson is on Sonnet 18. This Sonnet develops around a convention often used in Renaissance poems about the transience of youth and beauty through the comparison with aspects of nature.

Slide 9 – Sonnet 18

Using a typical convention of Renaissance poems about the transience of youth and beauty and in order to reach his aim Shakespeare compares the young man’s beauty to a summer’s day.

From here the turning point of the poem: Shakespeare says that as in a real summer, the young man’s youth and beauty won’t last forever. However his beauty will never fade in the world of the poem. Because art will preserve the idea of the youth. (here Shakespeare’s theory is recalled).

Slide 10 – Analysis if 1st quatrain

And now, finally, we can analyse the sonnet. We start with the first quatrain. On the left of the screen there is the sonnet, while on the right there is the paraphrase. The sonnet appears immediately, but in order to see the paraphrases of each line you have to click each time.

(It is possible to involve the students by asking them “if it was up to you, what would you analyze? Which are the key elements in a sonnet?)

The first quatrain introduces how short summer can be. The sonnet starts with a question which the rest of the sonnet answers. The comparison between the young man and the summer’s day evokes light, life and brilliance. As a result, the poet establishes that the young man is much more perfect and reliable than a summer’s day.

Shakespeare, to answer to the question, shows all of summer’s imperfections, beginning with the example that rough winds come in May and disturb the darling flowers. May is the month that marks the very beginning of summer and it is a time in the year when the weather starts to warm up and flowers are blossoming. Shakespeare uses a force of nature when he speaks about the wind. The image suggested is that of the hot wind of May coming and blowing petals off beautiful flowers. The wind may be a metaphor for obstacles in life.

“And summer’s lease hath all too short a date”: this comparison implies that the youth’s beauty lasts all year long; there is no limit on it and there is no time clock ticking to end it. The theme of time is one of great importance in this poem. Shakespeare feels as though the youth is not subject to time or age. Summer’s splendour and beauty may end, but the youth’s will not.

(It may be motivating to contextualize where the sonnet was written in order to make some considerations with students about the summer’s conditions in London)

Slide 11 – Analysis of 2nd quatrain

Paraphrases of the second quatrain.

The following lines offer explanations of why the comparison to a summer’s day is not good enough. Shakespeare expresses that the sun shines too much some days and it is too hot. Other days the sun’s face is hidden by clouds and it is overcast. His personification of the sun lends a hand to comparison. The sun is too hot, but the youth is, as before, temperate. The sun’s golden complexion may be hidden by clouds but the youth’s beauty and golden complexion are never hidden. There is great power in the comparison of the youth to the sun. Shakespeare believes that all the power the sun possesses, brilliance, heat, colour, blindness, and life are nothing compared to the power and perfection of the young man.

“And every fair from fair sometimes declines, By chance or nature’s changing course untrimmed:” By saying that every fair from fair declines, Shakespeare is saying that every beautiful thing, at some point, grows less and less beautiful and that it reaches the point when it can never be as beautiful as when it first came into being. All beautiful things will fall from perfection. Like summer, beauty has a time limit on it. This is not the case with the young man. His beauty will never fade and he will always retain the state of perfection.

Slide 12 – Analysis of 3rd quatrain

Paraphrases of the third quatrain

The third quatrain introduces the merging of heavenly life with that of earthly love. At this point Shakespeare has finished explaining how summer is inadequate compared to the youth and begins to tell his promise to the youth.

“But thy eternal summer shall not fade…”: the eternal summer represents the eternity of the youth’s perfection. The eternal summer won’t ever fade and it will never lose its original beauty. This again affirms that the youth is not subject to time. He is immortal.

Shakespeare finally declares that the reason that the youth will always be immortal and in perfect state is death has no power over him.

“Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade...”: Unlike Death’s eventual victory over every living thing, it will not have any affect on the youth. The reason has to be found in the fact that youth will be captured forever in Shakespeare’s verse and because of these lines, the youth will remain immortal and will grow as time grows.

Slide 13 – Analysis of the final couplet

Paraphrases of the final couplet.

“So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this give life to thee.”: this is the final part of Shakespeare’s promise to the youth and it expresses that as long as man inhabits the earth, the verse will always exist, and because of the existence of the verse, the youth will live on forever in the words. His image and beauty will always be captured in time and as a consequence, he will remain immortal. The verse gives the youth a means for immortality and eternal existence because it transcends the time barrier.

The final couplet states that the beloved’s “eternal summer” will not die as long as there are people alive to read this declaration of all consuming love.

These lines suggest that his friend will grow or exist within the lines of the poem

Slide 14 –15-16Figure of speech

Now, let’s see some figures of speech. With one click the definition comes out. To make the example pops up you have to click again.

(It is possible to show students the definitions and then go back to the sonnet and make them find out examples of rhetoric devices)

Slide 17 – Meter

In verse and poetry, meter is a recurring pattern of stressed and unstressed, that is to say unaccented, syllables in lines of a set length. A line contains ten syllables in which the first syllable is unstressed, the second is stressed, the third is unstressed, the fourth is stressed, and so on until the line reaches the tenth syllable. The line then looks like the following onecontaining a pattern of unstressed and stressed syllables:

Shall I com PARE thee TO a SUM mer’s DAY?

The stressed syllables are in capital letter.

Iambic pentameter is essentially the metre or the basic rhythm of Shakespeare’s sonnets. It has accents and unaccented syllables.

Slide 18 – Final observations

In conclusion we can say that Shakespeare successfully depicted in this sonnet his life as a youth and how love had gone at that point of his life. Sonnet 18 has always been considered great for its lyrical simplicity; its peaceful, sunny imagery, and its insight into the world of Shakespeare. Through his lines, it was evident that he viewed love as something that is that powerful that it will exist forever, an immortal entity. Shakespeare then knew and was confident that his works will live on forever as well.

To conclude our analysis it is interesting to divide the sonnet according to its contents. What we can see is a division of the sonnet in 3 sections. In lines 1 and 2 the question to which the rest of the sonnet answers is asked, from line 3 to line 8 all summer negative aspects are pointed out and finally from line 9 to line 14 all young man positive characteristics are outlined.

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