Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare Quiz

Answer:

William Shakespeare, who was a renowned poet and playwright, was baptised on April 26, 1564, and passed away on April 23, 1616. "Sonnet 18" is also known as "Shall I compare thee to a summer day?" It was written in 1609 and is part of 154 sonnets known as "Shakespeare's Sonnets".

To begin with, the poem presents a straightforward question that the reader must answer: "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?". What the poet is asking is: Has the summer's day got the same beauty as himself or someone he loves? The rest of the poem then tries to answer the question.

An unknown young man is the subject of the first 17 poems in the collection where this was first published; they are collectively referred to as the procreation sonnets. Who this young man was is unclear; however, two names have been mentioned: Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton, and William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke. The truth is, we will never know for certain.

The theme of the first seventeen poems, including the poem "Fair Youth", suggests that the young man should get married and start a family in order to pass on his beauty to future generations and thereby immortalise it. Other references from the sonnets suggest that the poet has an affection for the young man, maybe just platonic, maybe more. Also in the poem "Fair Youth", the young man has a sexual relationship with the Dark Lady. The poem ends with the poet betraying himself and becoming disenchanted with the young man.

As everyone knows, summers in the UK are short, seasonal, and may be very hot. They can also be fairly rainy at times, with erratic storm patterns. This might also be true in other regions of the world. Everything appears lovely in the summer; trees, plants, flowers, and animals all flourish. Everyone and everything is having a pretty pleasant time right now, but it won't last long. Summer ends with short days and the deaths of people, plants, and flowers, among other things. The days of summer are gone and are only a memory. However, a person does not lose their beauty or fade away like a summer's day because it's seasonal; it continues all through their lifetime, month by month, year by year.

I think what Shakespeare is saying is that his poem will endure and continue to "give life" even in death by preserving his memory for as long as people will exist and read poetry. Everybody has an inner beauty that is more than just a period of time in the summer, and we can all list all the reasons why it is better than a summer's day.