Analysis Of Sonnet 18

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Sonnet 18 is a typical Shakespearean sonnet that hardly departs from the “classic” rules of an English sonnet. It has fourteen lines in a simple iambic pentameter; although, there are a few strong first syllables in the poem and some lines have eleven syllables instead of just ten. None of the lines flow into the next one. All of them have a distinct stopping place except that of line 9, which does not end with any type of punctuation mark.There are three quatrains in the poem, the third one changes the tone of the poem, that are followed up by a rhymed couplet that ends the poem. The poem also has a typical rhyme scheme of ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. Sonnet 18 is considered to be the first of the group of 108 sonnets written about a young man, however one could easily presume that the person being talked about is a woman. Since there is no suggestion in this poem of a particular sex, the anonymous person will be addressed as Shakespeare’s “beloved.” In the first line of the poem, the author is asking or just wondering out loud if he should compared his love to a summer’s day. The second li...

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