When exploring the conventions of ‘Sonnet 18’ we can see it has the typical conventions of a Shakespearean sonnet using three quatrains and a rhyming couplet. The first quatrain establishes the theme of comparing the speaker’s beloved with a summer’s day, and why it is difficult to do so. The whole of ‘sonnet 18’ is used as an extended metaphor, and this is seen from the very beginning:
Shall I compare thee to a summers day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate (1-2)
The sonnet begins with a metaphoric question, asking if the speaker should compare this person with summer. The speaker then answers by saying she is ‘more lovely and more temperate’ this combines with the meaning created by the first quatrain immediately giving the reader an idea that the speaker feels his beloved is better than a summers day. The second quatrain enhances this theme and expands it by showing how all the beautiful effects of summer eventually fade. Throughout the first two quatrains the idea of the beloved being more beautiful than summer is continued and with the use of imagery enhanced even more. Using the season of summer creates an image of a warm beautiful day in the readers mind therefore encouraging them to create an image of a woman so beautiful she is better than the day itself. Imagery is also used to highlight the imperfections of summer: ‘Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May’ (3). The imagery created through the figurative language further develops the idea of the beloved being better than summer. The suggestion that her beauty is finer than that of the summer’s day is also seen through the personification of the sun:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed (5- 6)
The sun is shown as being too hot and as disappearing too soon, another imperfection of summer. The personification of the sun in this way is also extremely effective in enhancing the romantic meaning of the sonnet. However, by calling it the ‘eye of heaven’ the speaker is also using the sun to represent death. The speaker appears to change his theme and say, metaphorically, that like summer his beloved will eventually end. The third quatrain then turns around this meaning by saying how the speaker can’t compare his beloved to summer, as her beauty will never fade. The turn is made obvious with the word ‘But’ on line 9. Having a turn here is not the usual place for a Volta in English sonnets, however it helps to enhance the speaker’s feelings of not being able to compare his beloved, as she is perfect: ‘But thy eternal summer shall not fade’ (9) the turn is placed here so the next two lines can act as an ‘answer’ in comparison with line 5/6 where it seemed he was agreeing that she would also eventually die. After the turn the speaker describes his beloved as summer rather than comparing her to summer with the only difference being she is ‘eternal’ The use of this metaphor combined with the meaning created through the conventions in the third quatrain intensifies the meaning of her beauty being eternal and living for ever. The idea of his beloved staying alive through poetry is also seen in line 12: ‘When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st’ (12). The ‘eternal lines to time’ is not only used as a synecdoche where ‘lines’ is referring to the whole poem but also refers to the aging lines of beauty she will get as she gets older. These eternal lines of both poetry and her beauty will only get more beautiful with age.
The final couplet concludes by enhancing the speaker’s feelings that his beloved will live forever through his words in the poem. To do this Shakespeare reverts to typical English sonnet conventions with a concluding final couplet,
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee
This couplet concludes the sonnets overall meaning that poetry will keep her beauty alive and her ‘eternal summer’ will not fade because the speaker has embodied it within his sonnet.
The form of this sonnet is that of a typical English sonnet, however the argument structure seems to be developed more like that of an Italian sonnet. It seems the first two quatrains are used more like an Octave raising the main issue with the third quatrain and couplet being used as a sestet to resolve the issue. By doing this Shakespeare is able to add more emphasis to the sonnets meaning as the reading of the sonnet is made to continuously flow just like his beloved’s beauty. In Shakespeare’s ‘sonnet 73’ we see a more conventional argument structure that is very typical of an English sonnet.
This typical English sonnet argument structure in ‘sonnet 73’ is seen by the very linear development of the first three quatrains followed by the rhyming couplet. This adds meaning by creating a clear argument and conclusion for the reader. In the first quatrain the speaker is describing the changing seasons and the approaching winter, however combined with the use of metaphors the reader can see he is also talking about his age:
When yellow leaves, or none, or few do hang
Upon those boughs, which shake against the cold
This shows how the warm season of summer has gone and winter, which represents loneliness and desolation, is here. The metaphors emphasize to the reader how the speaker is comparing his age with the changing seasons.
Within the second quatrain the speaker talks of the day ending, symbolized by the sunset, and the night taking over changing his focus from aging to death:
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death’s second self, that seals up all in rest.
The reader gains a better understanding of the meaning with the added use of figurative language. The words ‘black night’ have been put together creating a metaphor for death itself. The speaker sees similarities between how the night closes in on the day with how his old age is closing in on himself. The third quatrain talks of a fire slowly perishing revealing that the speaker is not talking of his physical death but the death of his youth:
In me thou see’st the glowing of such fire
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
The speaker is using a metaphor to compare himself to a glowing fire which combined with the effect of the third quatrain accentuate the theme of the speakers ‘glowing’ youth being replaced by old age. Each quatrain begins with either the phrase ‘thou mayest in me behold’ or ‘In me thou seest’ these phrases reveal the speakers awareness of the aging process occurring within his body. Combined with the use of figurative language he compares this aging process to the three natural occurrences of nature, shown in each quatrain. In the first quatrain we see a seasonal change to winter, the second sees the change from day to night and the third a slow perishing fire.
Although the speaker uses the three quatrains to talk of growing old and losing his youth we see there is still an element of love, brought up in the final concluding couplet.
This thou perceiv’st, which makes thy love more strong
To love that well, thou must leave ere long
It appears to the reader that the sonnet was written to a loved one and these two lines sum up the relationship. The speaker is saying that even though he is older now he is still loved by the person important to him and the love is made stronger by his age. The organization of ‘sonnet 73’ develops through images of aging, to dying, to death and then ultimately to love.
We have looked at two English sonnets Shakespeare’s ‘Sonnet 73’ and ‘Sonnet 18’. ‘Sonnet 73’ used typical conventions of the English form through development of its argument and it rhyme scheme giving readers a basic outline of the sonnets meaning. ‘Sonnet 18’ however, showed similar conventions but developed its argument much like the Italian sonnet. This shows how the English form and Italian argument structure compliment each other. The conventions of both these sonnets did create meaning but this was further enhanced with the use of figurative language. In ‘sonnet 73’ the metaphors were used to show the speaker growing old and then extended throughout the sonnet, which helped to emphasize the sonnets central meaning. Whereas in ‘Sonnet 18’ personification was used to create an image in the readers head of an amazingly beautiful woman who is incomparable to even the nicest season, summer. I conclude that on there own both conventions and figurative language create meaning but when combined the meaning is enhanced. This is due to figurative language being able to create images for the reader and add mood and tension to a sonnet.