Shakespeare's Sonnet XVIII

thou growest,So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,So long lives this and this gives life to thee.Sonnet 18 is a brilliant and famous sonnet where Shakespeare compares hislover's eternal beauty to the transient beauty of nature. In the firstoctave Shakespeare compares his lover to a Summer's day, but, at the startof the third quatrain there is a volta where he begins to tell his lover howthe many imperfections of a Summer's day cannot touch his lover's superiorqualities, and his life, and the memory of it, is an eternal summer, andthus, he has metamorphosed into the standard by which true beauty can andshould be judged. The poet starts the sonnet by asking his lover thequestion 'Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?' comparing him to asummer's day in itself is a delectable plaudit but he then goes on to buildupon the image of his lover as a perfect being by stating the faults of asummer's day compared to the beauty and excellence of his lover. He tellshim of how the summer winds can be too rough and the weather can changequickly without warning compared with the temperate and calm nature of hislover. Shakespeare also tells how summer's end comes too soon and the suncan be too hot or go behind the clouds and all that is beautiful loses itsbeauty, by chance or by nature's planned out course. His lover, however, isuntouched by this and his beauty is immortal, the memory of his life willnot fade, nor lose the beauty that belongs to it and death will never claimhim for his own. As I read this sonnet I found the personification of the Sun (lines 5 and6) to be extremely effective in enhancing the romantic and poetic essence ofthe sonnet, I feel 'the eye of heaven' and 'his gold complexion' areexcellent uses of language and help the sonnet to flow with more aura. The poet' s only answer to such profound joy and beauty is to ensure thathis lover be forever in human memory, saved from the ultimate oblivion thataccompanies death. He achieves this through his verse, believing that, ashistory writes itself, his lover will become one with time as anyone whoreads his words will build up their own picture of incredible beauty,therefore fashion and changing views will never mean that his lover's beautywill never die and his words will always bring across the beauty of hislover.  The couplet reaffirms Shakespeare's hope that as long as there isbreath in mankind, his poetry will too live on, and ensure the immortalityof his lover's beauty.