Question

read the passage and answer the following question(s).
sonnet 18
shall i compare thee to a summers day?
thou art more lovely and more temperate:
rough winds do shake the darling buds of may,
and summers lease hath all too short a date:
sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
and often is his gold complexion dimmd;
and every fair from fair sometime declines,
by chance or natures changing course untrimmd;
but thy eternal summer shall not fade
nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
nor shall death brag thou wanderst in his shade,
when in eternal lines to time thou growest:
so long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
so long lives this and this gives life to thee.
william shakespeare (1564 - 1616)
public domain
in an essay, describe the theme of the poem and how the author uses detail to convey it to the reader. be sure to include specific examples from the text to support your response.

Explanation:

The theme of Sonnet 18 is the timelessness and immortality of love and beauty through poetry. Shakespeare uses detailed comparisons. He starts by comparing the beloved to a summer's day but then points out summer's flaws: "Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May" (showing summer's destructiveness) and "summer's lease hath all too short a date" (its brevity). He contrasts this with the beloved's "eternal summer [that] shall not fade." He also uses the image of "eternal lines" (the poem itself) to convey that as long as "men can breathe or eyes can see," the beloved's beauty and the poet's love will live on. This shows how art (poetry) can transcend the transient nature of the physical world (like summer) and bestow immortality.

Answer:

The theme of Sonnet 18 is the immortality of love and beauty via poetry. Shakespeare details summer's flaws (destructive winds, short - lived) versus the beloved's eternal qualities and uses the poem's "eternal lines" as the vehicle for immortality.