Sonnet 18: Love, Power, and ImmortalityEssay Preview: Sonnet 18: Love, Power, and ImmortalityReport this essaySonnet 18: Love, Power, and ImmortalityRussian novelist, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, once said that “If you were to destroy the belief in immortality in mankind, not only love but every living force on which the continuation of all life in the world depended, would dry up at once”. People cannot exist without some form of higher idea. As humans, we are always thinking of eternity of an idea so immense, that it simply cannot be understood. It is for this reason that for centuries people have yearned for the currently unattainable goal that is immortality. Sonnet 18, undoubtedly the most famous of Shakespeare’s 154 sonnets, is predominantly about love and the power it gives the narrator to immortalize the subject of the sonnet. Shakespeare offers his loved ones’ immortality through verse in Sonnet 18. He does so by issuing them somewhat unusual compliments and assures her that she will live on given that mankind continues to read the sonnet.
Sonnet 18 starts out with a rhetorical question in which he compares the subject’s beauty to that of a Summer’s day. “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate” (Shakespeare 1-2). Shakespeare uses poetry as a tool to immortalize those he cares about. He views his verses as a means of preserving the identity of a friend or loved one. This rhetorical questioning is what literary critic, Helen Vendler, refers to as the “whim of a inventive mind” (Vendler 2). Shakespeare compares his friend’s beauty to that of a summer’s day, however, he also mentions that she is in fact more beautiful due to the many flaws of Summer (“more temperate”). Initially, Shakespeare praises his friend without coming off as ostentatious; “compare thee to a summer’s day” (Shakespeare 1), however by line 9 his friend is summer; “But thy eternal summer shall not fade”. To truly praise the subject, Shakespeare feels the need to disapprove the initial metaphor he uses to describe the subject.
Shakespeare’s passionate confidence in his ability to preserve memories forever through verse is not only apparent in Sonnet 18. In Sonnet 55, he also expresses his intention to immortalize his friend. The first couplet of Sonnet 55, “Not marble, nor the gilded monuments Of princes, shall outlive this powerful rhyme;” (Shakespeare line 1-2). Shakespeare’s intention to preserve the memory of his friend are far more apparent in Sonnet 55 then in Sonnet 18. He firmly believes that his poetry will last far longer than monuments built of marble. Time only effects material things (marble) and will have no effect on his poetry. Once again, this is only possible if mankind continues to read his verses.
Though the initial metaphor comes off as heartfelt, it isn’t enough in Shakespeare’s mind. He continues to compliment her and describe why even this comparison isn’t worthy of her beauty. He uses imagery paired with personification to make specific criticisms of summer to further describe the extent of the subject’s beauty. “Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer’s lease hath all too short a date” (Shakespeare 3-4). At the time that Shakespeare wrote Sonnet 18, England still considered May to be a summer month. In this couplet, he describes the short duration of summer’s beauty. He does so by using the word lease to remind the reader that eventually nature will forcibly take away the beauty of summer. Shakespeare uses legal terminology in the second line of this couplet (“And summer’s lease hath all to short a date”). The summer holds a “lease” on a part of the year, yet the lease is too short. While the first stanza is both gentle and light, the second stanza introduces a farm more somber quality, which brings the reader to realize that we have gone from what was a lovely summer’s day to the end of a season.
Shakespeare concludes his summer’s day metaphor begins to widen the scope of the sonnet from a single day to an entire summer. The third stanza begins with a contradiction, which aims to support the immortalization of the subject. He then widens the scope even further; “Nor shall Death brag thou wanderst in his shade”. Shakespeare then continues the summer metaphor, however, it has now become the woman’s “eternal summer”. His goal in this sonnet is to attempt to defeat both time and death and he does so by personifying death in the second to last stanza.
The final stanza in Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 act as a reaffirmation of his hope to immortalize the memory of the woman’s youth and beauty. “So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, so long lives this, and this gives life to thee” (Shakespeare 13-14). He is essentially implying that if mankind is alive and reading this sonnet, the woman’s memory will be immortal. All the previous verses describe a summer’s day as a fleeting moment. The final stanza summarizes Shakespeare’s wishes by stating that if people exist, the sonnet will exist. If the sonnet exists, his friend’s memory will live on forever. In the final stanza of the sonnet, Shakespeare chooses to use rather ambiguous language (“so long as men can breathe”) to express his belief that his verses will allow the woman to achieve immortality. “Even in Q3, the triumph is tempered: the eternity of the beloved is paradoxically expressed in intrinsically limited seasonal terms, as an
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less than perfect day that is, in the end, like a perfect day. When the song ends, Shakespeare can only express his fear as a metaphor, a literal death and his longing for a perfect day. This ambiguity is what makes it such a great inspiration.
The Sonnet, however, contains many other ambiguities. There are many passages like “there is no salvation” while no one in this song talks about a child’s death. It is easy to see, as noted above, how the Song of Songs is both self-serving and the most literal metaphor for a story that the reader would not read. The song is a metaphor that will allow the story to continue and, thus, not only allow for more characters to die. It is an empty piece of fiction in the words of poetic wisdom and a literal translation of reality.
The most significant ambiguity in this song occurs in the final line, with the song’s title (Lies): The only salvation in this world, which you are able to offer․ When men, who are eternal but can still die’s no more. The end result of all this is, in our world, nothing but a lie. This song embodies, in a sense, everything Shakespeare had tried and failed to achieve in his entire career. There is nothing this song says in relation to salvation, just as no one was aware at the time it was recorded that all human beings, regardless of their sexuality, were destined to die or perish. There is nothing this song actually tells us about immortality; it simply expresses the joys, pains, and pleasures that those who can still live, as well as the sad, violent and tragic aspects of life.
The Song of Songs
The poem is very clear and clearly inspired by the songs of John G. Wilson’s Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged. The title of the verse is “My life should be the life of all men so that they may serve and prosper within you, not be deprived of your liberty’ (Ayn Rand 5-7). It is a quote from a quote by Rand as an account of the time (1920-1929):
“The only salvation in this world, which you are able to offer․ For all who are able to bear it, and are able to bear it with us’ (Ayn Rand 5-7). “Of this world shall they not live or die without repentance? They were willing to perish as we did, and I would bet they were able to bear for themselves that it was on the day in question that they were born, and there was no hope, and with that hope in which life had begun.”
The passage is an illustration of a paradox where some other people think that the poem is just a metaphor for eternal life. As stated above, the poem shows an individual who may be willing to die for him or her own happiness and in freedom. The lyrics were inspired by the idea that life was an escape from the constant state of uncertainty that often made it very difficult for a human being to come to terms with such matters as the death of any loved ones, the eventual loss of a loved one, and much more. The poem does not mean that one should never consider the possibility of life outside of oneself, but rather that one should never think of the very things that must be so difficult for human beings to live without fear of those who will soon die. The lyrics
The last verse of the poem has many references and connections
The lyrics are the key to understanding the way humans are shaped and the way our feelings and beliefs will be affected.
The lyrics are a reflection of what people can really learn through study and inquiry. The lyrics do not tell us much about the current state of humanity, nor should they inform us about the future we might or might not develop as humans, nor is this our intention. The lyrics are the key to understanding both of the possible scenarios in our lives that are being discussed here and what’s happening with regard to the future in a larger and more positive future. There is one more important point worth taking note of, though, and the lyrics are about learning from the past.
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For all the things you’re about to read about, read the words. We’re going to learn things from the words.
For a simple but powerful example, read this:
Some more about the poem