By naming the poem, "Sonnet 18" in a series of some 154 Sonnets, this indicates the sonnets are part of a series, all based on similar themes (Internet quote:name). The theme of the preceding 17 Sonnets, to preserve beauty against time and decay, is again captured within the lines of "Sonnet 18". The love Shakespeare has for the fair youth in "Sonnet 18" is of the same similar theme (Blakemore 1974)

The word, sonnet, is from the Italian word, "Sonnetto", and means, "Little song". A sonnet follows a tight and metrical rhyme scheme and is a formally specific 14-line poem. "Sonnet 18" is a Shakespearian sonnet featuring three quatrains and a couplet, rhyming: abab, cdcd, efef, gg. A sonnet contains a favoured subject, which in this Sonnet, is love (Murfin & Ray

Shakespeare plays with the conventions of a sonnet and what beauty is to us, by his criticism of summer ("sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines"). This reflects the mood of the author, by demonstrating a contradiction to the contemporary ideal of what beauty is and the expectations held, during the Renaissance Period. This was a time of change and thus reflected through art (including poetry). Poets began to use the use of individuals as subjects for their poems, as Shakespeare has done with his series of sonnets.

1998). The poem begins with a question: "Shall I compare thee to a Summers day?" (Shakespeare 473) which engages the audience to read on and find the answer. Punctuation such as commas and colans at the end of each line serve to provide a pause in the flow of the sonnet rather than the use of a full-stop. This gives continued rhythm to the flow of the words.

Punctuation within the poem is also uncomplicated and sparse. Lines two, four and six are completed with a colan, giving more emphasis to the meaning of the words. These three lines demonstrate three differing themes, respectively. Line two emphasises the subject of the poet's affections as being "more lovely and more temperate" than summer. Line four states summer is "too short", and line six states the reason for the decline i

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Approximate Word count = 891
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)