William Shakespeare Rhetorical Questions

Once a person has a thorough understanding of the English language they’re able to communicate their thoughts and feelings without blatantly saying it.One of these people would undoubtedly be William Shakespeare, in his piece Sonnet XVII his understanding of the English language can truly be observed as he describes his deep infatuation for another without using the word love once.Instead, Shakespeare uses different stylistic elements such as interesting language, imagery, and details in order to express his feelings to the reader.In the beginning of the Sonnet, the reader can instantaneously observe Shakespeare’s use of a rhetorical question being “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”(Shakespeare 1).The simple rhetorical question starts

the basis of the rest of the piece.This question is not only important because it establishes Shakespeare's pedantic language, but it also shows how he seems to be addressing a lover of sorts.He embellishes on this idea of a summer’s day by using euphonious language such as “lovely” and “temperate” to describe this perfect summer's day (Shakespeare 2).As the piece progresses the reader can start to notice a recurrence of unfamiliar diction such as “owest” and “wander’st”(Shakespeare 10-11).This atypical language creates this quaint setting for the entire piece which makes Shakespeare's proclamations of love seem all that more sincere when paired with this antiquated diction.

Another stylistic resource used by Shakespeare in his sonnet is imagery, he uses this almost entirely through the piece to convey his emotions.For example, in the rhetorical question mentioned earlier, he introduces the idea of a “Summer’s day”(Shakespeare 1). This then goes on to become the image he manipulates in order to describe his undying love. Shakespeare then develops this metaphor of the summer's day as being “hath all to short a date”(Shakespeare 4).