Shakespeare's Sonnets (18)

William Shakespeare is perhaps the most well-known playwright across the globe.
However, many might not know that he was also the author of over 150 poems. These
poems were sonnets, or 14-line poems with a set rhyme scheme.
Browsing through his many sonnets, you are likely to recognize many famous lines.
'Sonnet 18,' which we will be discussing today, has several of those well-known
quotes. So let's dive in and take a closer look at the figurative language within 'Sonnet
18.'
In order to analyse the figurative language, we must first read the sonnet:
Sonnet 18:
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.

Anything sound familiar? This poem has a few lines that have been referenced many
times in other literature and even pop culture. The basic message of this poem centers
on the speaker comparing his love to a summer's day. He draws several different
connections between summer and the woman he loves, until he finally makes the point
in the final two lines that summer days end (as do human lives). However, since he
has captured his love in this poem, it will live on forever through the people who read
it.
One technique Shakespeare uses to emphasize this message is figurative language.
Figurative Language & Metaphor
To begin, let's review this term. Figurative language consists of words or phrases
with a different interpretation other than the literal meaning. For instance, imagine
there is a storm raging outside your window and you yell to your mother, 'It's raining
cats and dogs!'
The literal interpretation of that statement would be that animals are falling from the
sky. Is that true? Of course not! Instead, you have a figurative interpretation that the
rain is coming down really hard. This figure of speech emphasizes that message.
Now we can look closer at different types of figurative language used in this sonnet.
Our first one is a metaphor, which compares two things without using 'like' or 'as.'
Metaphors usually draw the comparison by stating one thing is another.
Returning to Shakespeare, let's go back to the very first line of 'Sonnet 18:'
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
This line outlines the metaphor for the whole poem, which compares the woman the
speaker loves to a summer day.
We see another metaphor further on in the poem:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
In these lines, the metaphor is comparing the sun to the eye of heaven. This figurative
language emphasizes the beauty or radiance of the sun. His underlying point lies in
the fact that even the sun (the eye of heaven) will get dim from time to time, but the
beauty of his beloved will never fade. This can be seen again later in the poem:
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Again, this metaphor reiterates the fundamental comparison of this woman to a
summer's day.

Imagery
Next, let's look at the use of imagery, or words that appeal to our five senses to create
a vivid description. The following lines contain imagery:
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
Can you pull out any words that appeal to the five senses? 'Rough' and 'hot' appeal to
the sense of touch, while 'shines' and 'gold' appeal to the sense of sight. In fact, the
'buds of May' can be an appeal to the sense of smell by referring to flowers. These are
just a few instances of the imagery Shakespeare uses to create a vivid description of
a summer day.

Personification
Our next type of figurative language is personification, which occurs when an author
gives human characteristics to inanimate objects. Look again at these two lines:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
Besides the metaphors and imagery, these lines also have personification. A
complexion is something usually only attributed to human faces; however, the speaker
states the sun has a complexion. Here is another example:
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
This line actually personifies death. In fact, Shakespeare makes death a proper noun
by capitalizing it. Secondly, the action of bragging is solely attributed to human beings.
Finally, the speaker states death gives off shade. This must mean that death has a
body and can block the sun. All these instances of personification make death less
powerful, which plays into the overall message that summer ends, as do human lives.
However, even death himself cannot kill off the speaker's love for this woman.

Hyperbole
Our final type of figurative language is hyperbole, or an extreme exaggeration. Here's
one example:
But thy eternal summer shall not fade

The use of the word 'eternal' is an exaggeration. People do not live forever, and his
beloved's beauty or love will eventually fade and die. The final two lines of the sonnet
continue this hyperbolic concept:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
These lines emphasize how important capturing his love in this poem is to him.
Unfortunately, this is definitely an exaggeration. He claims as long as men exist, this
poem will live on. Yes, Shakespeare was a literary genius, but will his works be read
for all eternity? Who knows? The larger purpose to including this hyperbole is to stress
how his love has impacted the speaker. His love is so strong, it must live on forever
and ever - long after both people are dead.
Lesson Summary
To review, a sonnet is a 14 line poem with a set of rhyme scheme. ‘Sonnet 18’ is one
of Shakespeare’s most popular sonnets, which compares a beloved woman to a
summer’s day.
Figurative language is used throughout the poem to emphasize the extent of the
speaker’s feelings and love for his woman. A metaphor, which is a comparison
between two things without using ‘like’ or ‘as’ is used to compare the woman to a
summer day. Imagery, which appeals to the five senses, is used to create vivid
description of that summer day. Personification, or the attribution of human traits to
inanimate objects, is used to describe the sun and to humanize or deemphasize death.
Lastly, hyperbole, or an extreme exaggeration, is used to emphasize the scope of the
speaker’s feelings towards this beloved. All these techniques combine to make this
one of the most romantic and most quoted, of Shakespeare’s sonnets.
(116)
In 'Sonnet 116,' Shakespeare uses various styles of figurative language, including
symbolism, metaphor, and personification, to describe love as something that is
constant and unchanging.

Don't Be So Literal
During William Shakespeare's lifetime, the sonnet was one of the most popular poetic
forms. A 14-line poem following a set rhyme scheme, sonnets were all the rage in the
16th century, and almost all of the great writers tried their hand at the form.
Shakespeare was one of many.
So, why the sonnet craze? It is a limited form with specific rules and only 14 lines to
work with. In addition, sonnets usually deal with a narrow set of topics, such as love,
the progression of time, and death. So, with all these limitations, how is a writer
supposed to do something new with a sonnet?
The answer is figurative language, the use of words in creative ways that go beyond
the literal meaning. When you say 'I'm hungry,' you're being literal, but when you say
'I'm so hungry I could eat a horse,' you're using figurative language (unless you're
planning to actually eat a horse). Figurative language is the lifeblood of poetry - and
especially of sonnets. Working with the limitations of the sonnet, writers like
Shakespeare use figurative language to come up with new ways to talk about old
themes, like love and death that can be beautiful and profound.
Like most Shakespearean sonnets, 'Sonnet 116' has three sections: two quatrains of
four lines each followed by a sestet of six lines. The easiest way to work through a
sonnet is to go section by section.

First Quatrain
‘‘Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:'
In this first quatrain, Shakespeare uses symbolism in the famous phrase 'marriage of
true minds.' Symbolism is the use of one object to stand in for a larger idea or concept.
Here, Shakespeare uses the common symbolism of 'mind' to not only refer to the
physical brain but to represent a person's intellect and character. Using this symbol,
he establishes the ideal marriage as one of two 'true minds' and then says that love
should not change if it is between two individuals who are being honest and open with
one another.

Second Quatrain
'O no; it is an ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests, and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.'
Developing the ideas from the first quatrain, Shakespeare now uses perhaps the most
common type of figurative language: metaphor. A metaphor compares two things,
usually to highlight a quality in one or both of them. In this quatrain, Shakespeare uses
two metaphors to highlight how love should be unchanging.
In the first, he calls love a 'fixed mark,' or in other words, a lighthouse. He compares
love to the ever-glowing light of the lighthouse, which withstands storms and does not
move. Continuing the nautical theme, he then calls love a 'star to every wandering
bark,' comparing it to the North Star that guides lost ships at sea (ships are made of
wood, or 'bark.' Get it?).
In comparing love to a lighthouse and then the North Star, he creates an image of love
as steady, unmoving, and offering guidance to those who are lost.

Sestet
'Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickles compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved. '
In the sestet, Shakespeare switches up his figurative language, now using
personification to describe both love and time as people. In personification, abstract
concepts like love and time are given human form.
Shakespeare says that love is not 'Time's fool' because in Shakespeare's time, a 'fool'
was another word for a servant. Love is not the servant of Time, Will says, because
he doesn't change when 'rosy lips and cheeks' go away. He says that love continues
even through death, combining his personification of Time with the popular
personification of Death as the Grim Reaper with his 'bending sickle.'

Lesson Summary
In 'Sonnet 116,' William Shakespeare describes true love as being a 'marriage of true
minds' and then says that love is a constant, unchanging force that continues after
death. He does this within the constraints of the sonnet form by using various forms
of figurative language.
In the first quatrain, Shakespeare uses the 'mind' as a symbol to stand in for the
whole person's intellect. Metaphor in the second quatrain is used to describe love as
a constant, unchanging guide, like a lighthouse or the North Star. Personification in
the sestet expresses that love is not the servant of Time, as it continues even past
death.