A Critical Appraisal of Shakespeare’s 18th Sonnet

The poem is a sonnet by Shakespeare. Its 14 lines are divided into three quatrains. The idea of ​​the beauty of “beautiful youth” has been introduced by a comparison with the enchantment of a summer’s day in the first quatrain. In Britain, a summer’s day is well known for its dazzling sunshine, beauty and charm. The image of “summer day” has been used here to indicate the brightness, beauty and charm of “beautiful youth”. To the speaker, his friend first appears radiant, cheerful, and charming as a summer’s day. But he soon makes amends by saying that his friend is “prettier and more temperate.”

However, there is a doubt placed in the first line: if “a summer’s day” is a beneficial comparison with his friend. The suspicion has been logically represented in the following lines. It has been explained through a series contrast. Various images have been used to establish that the qualities of the friend are better than those of the summer day.

In the second quatrain, the speaker makes a logical argument to establish that his suspicion is correct. Here the announcer used various images to show that the qualities of his friend are better than those of summer. The beauty of a summer day is characteristically uncertain. Because the summer sun suddenly becomes very hot. Sometimes it suddenly gets dark due to clouds in the sky. All this implies that the friend’s beauty is not subject to destruction.

In the third quatrain, the speaker moves on to the positive qualities of “beautiful youth”. The beauty of “beautiful youth” will never fade or lose it. Death will never be able to defeat him and proudly enjoy his victory because the speaker has sheltered him in the immortal verses of this poem.

This is a sonnet by Shakespeare and bears the marks of the Elizabethan period. Shakespeare, like other English sonnets, borrowed the Petrarchan sonnet form. The praise of the beauty of the recipient is in tune with the Petrarchan tradition. However, Shakespeare differs from the Petrarchan rhyme scheme. Petrarch’s rhyme scheme is abba abba cde cde or cde dcd. But Shakespeare’s rhyme scheme is abab cdcd efef gg. Furthermore, the lines of Petrarch’s sonnet are hendecasybic (elevensyllabic), while Shakespeare’s lines are decanosyllabic.

The words selected by Shakespeare are lucid and easily adapted to the stressed and unstressed rhythms and the particular rhyme scheme.