Sonnet 18

Quiz — Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare

1. Recall – Form: What is the rhyme scheme of Sonnet 18, and what are the structural units that make up this Shakespearean sonnet form?

1. Recall – Speaker & Subject: Who is the speaker addressing in Sonnet 18, and what mysterious detail surrounds this person's identity?

1. Recall – Key Image: What symbol does Shakespeare use to represent the sun, and what two contrasting problems does this symbol highlight about nature's unreliability?

1. Recall – Key Image: What legal metaphor does Shakespeare use to describe summer's relationship with time, and what idea does this metaphor convey about natural beauty?

1. Comprehension – Argument: At the start of the poem, the speaker appears to be paying the beloved a compliment by suggesting a comparison to summer. How does this compliment quickly shift, and what does it reveal about the speaker's actual view of summer?

1. Comprehension – The Volta: Where does the volta occur in Sonnet 18, and what single word signals this turning point? How does the poem's direction change after this moment?

1. Comprehension – Immortality: According to the poem's analysis, how does the speaker claim the beloved will escape death? What does Death's characterisation as a "boastful" figure add to this idea?

1. Analysis – Theme of Art vs. Nature: A central argument in Sonnet 18 is that art is superior to nature. Using at least two symbols from the poem, explain how Shakespeare builds this argument.

1. Analysis – Tone: The analysis describes the speaker's tone as resembling a lawyer presenting a case. How does this lawyerly confidence shape the emotional impact of the poem's closing couplet, and what does the speaker's "pride" ultimately refer to?

1. Analysis – Context: Sonnet 18 belongs to a Renaissance tradition of comparing the beloved to nature, yet it subverts that tradition. In what way does Shakespeare turn this convention on its head, and why was the poem's claim about poetry's power considered bold for its time?

Answer Key

1. The rhyme scheme is ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. The poem consists of three quatrains (four-line stanzas) and a final rhyming couplet.

1. The speaker addresses a young man known as the "Fair Youth." His true identity remains a historical mystery.

1. The sun is referred to as "the eye of heaven." Its two issues are that it can blaze too fiercely (excessive harshness) and that it is often obscured by clouds (inconsistency/disappearance).

1. Shakespeare employs the metaphor of a lease — a legal contract with a fixed end date — to describe summer's connection to time. This suggests that natural beauty is temporary and contractually bound to fade, similar to a tenant who must eventually leave.

1. The initial comparison seems flattering, but the speaker swiftly counters it by highlighting summer's flaws: it is too rough, too warm, and too short-lived. This shift indicates that the speaker considers summer inferior to the beloved, not the reverse.

1. The volta occurs at the fifth line, marked by the word "But." Prior to this, the speaker enumerates summer's and nature's flaws; afterward, the poem shifts to affirming that the beloved's beauty is eternal and resistant to those same forces of decay.

1. The speaker asserts the beloved will achieve immortality by being preserved in the "eternal lines" of the poem. Depicting Death as boastful diminishes its power — instead of being an unstoppable force, Death becomes something that art can outsmart.

1. Summer's impermanence (the lease metaphor) and the sun's unreliability (the eye of heaven symbol) both illustrate nature's shortcomings. Conversely, the poem — through its "eternal lines" — provides permanence that nature cannot. This positions art as superior to even the most revered natural phenomena.

1. The confident, argumentative tone allows the couplet to resonate as a logical conclusion rather than mere sentiment: as long as humans exist to read the poem, the beloved lives on. The speaker's pride ultimately refers to pride in poetry itself — its unique ability to triumph over time and death.

1. Renaissance love poets typically praised the beloved by likening them to nature's wonders. Shakespeare reverses this by arguing that nature is imperfect and inferior to the beloved. The assertion that a poem could grant literal immortality was bold, as it elevated the poet's craft above both nature and death — a striking notion for the period.