A Study Guide (New Edition) for William Shakespeare's "Sonnet 18"

By Gale and Cengage

A Study Guide (New Edition) for William Shakespeare's "Sonnet 18", excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Poetry for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Poetry for Students for all of your research needs.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cengage Learning - Gale
• Release date: Jun 14, 2019
• ISBN: 9781535867948

Book preview

17

Sonnet 18

William Shakespeare

1609

Introduction

William Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 features one of the best-known opening lines in verse history. The poem compares the epitome of seasonal delight and an admired addressee, one with an ambiguous relation to the speaker. The addressee outshines the summer's day in several respects. The terms of comparison suggest that the addressee is both beautiful and young.

The abundant uncertainties surrounding the life of Shakespeare, the dates of composition of the sonnets, and the identities of the subjects—presumably real, possibly to some extent fictive—have been sources of conjecture and entertainment for Shakespearean scholars for centuries. The original edition of the 154 sonnets, a newly popular form, was published in 1609 as Shakespeare's Sonnets. But at least some of the poems had been composed in the 1590s—perhaps around mid-decade, when sonnets were in fashion—and more were likely composed in 1603–1604, when a plague outbreak closed down theaters. Most of the sonnets are addressed to an admired young man, often called the fair youth according to the descriptions. Sonnets 1–17 specifically focus on encouraging this handsome young man to bless posterity with attractive children. Sonnet 18, following hard upon this set, shifts slightly to conceive in the reverent verse of the sonneteer the preservation of the fair youth's beauty for posterity. The sonnet may be found in any of countless Shakespeare collections, among them, Shakespeare's Sonnets (Arden Shakespeare, 2004).

Author Biography

The details of Shakespeare's life are primarily known through documentary records, including publications bearing his name and various bureaucratic filings for town and church. He was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, about one hundred miles to the northwest of London, in April 1564. Prompt baptism being required, his baptismal record is the first documentation of his existence. His father, John, was a glover, a wool dealer, and a money lender who rose to the civic post of high bailiff, equivalent to the town's mayor. His mother was Mary Arden, who bore Shakespeare as her third child and eldest son. She had four daughters (three of whom died in infancy) and four sons in all. As the son of a prominent citizen, Shakespeare is presumed to have attended