How does Shakespeare compare the beauty of his friend to that of a summer's day in sonnet 18 ?

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    "Sonnet No 18 ,  Shall I Compare thee to a summer's day?" written by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616) who remains one of the greatest writers in the English Language. 

    "Shall I Compare thee to a summer's day?" is sonnet no 18 in Shakespeare's sequence of 154 Sonnets. His form of the sonnet, 14 lines of iambic pentameter ending in a rhymed couplet, is known as the Shakespearean sonnet.

summer's day in sonnet 18


    It has 3 quatrains followed by a couplet and follows the characteristics rhyme scheme : abab, cdcd,  efef, gg. 

    In Sonnet 18 Shakespeare captures forever the beauty of the young person in the very form of the poem. The poet therefore believes that this beauty, so inscribed in poetry, becomes a thing forever.


How does Shakespeare compare the beauty of his friend to that of a summer's day

   "Sonnet No 18 ,  Shall I Compare thee to a summer's day?" written by William Shakespeare. His form of the sonnet, 14 lines of iambic pentameter ending in a rhymed couplet, is known as the Shakespearean sonnet.

    In sonnet 18 Shakespeare captures forever the beauty of his friend in the very form of the poem. One of the greatest love poem , Sonnet q8, presumably address a young man. 

    The speaker opens the poem with a question addressed to the young friend. He wants to compare his beloved to a golden summer day.  

    In the first quatrain the poet compares the beauty of his friend to that of a summer day through  establishing the simile ame probably the young man's superiority. And in the second quatrain the considers the changing face of summer but also said that the eternal beauty of his friend shall not change. 

    So when comparing them the poet says that his friend is more beautiful and more constant, during summer the rough winds can shake buds from the trees, it is a fleeting time of the year, even then, sometimes the sun goes behind the clouds or it is too hot and finally the summer fades, giving way to the slow withering of everything in autumn.  However the poet feels that his beloved will stay beautiful forever and will never die because by the eternal lines of the poem the poet  eternize his friend. 

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S-Class-12th