Shakespeare's sonnet 18 is by far the best known (for those outside of literature circles) and one of the most quoted. It is written in the traditional Shakespearean (or English) style of sonnet. It contains three quatrains and followed by a rhyming couplet. The couplet section is the portion that this questions is about.
Let's walk through a brief summary of the three quatrains before we address the couplet.
Quatrain 1: The poem begins by addressing the beloved, whom the entire poem relates. The beloved is being compared to a summer's day. Shakespeare says, "Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,/And summer's lease hath all too short a date:" In this, he is saying that love and summer both are fleeting and can easily be shaken by "rough winds" that come their way.
Quatrain 2: Quite literally, this section says that sometimes summer (and love) are too hot and can decrease the beauty of the beloved. In the line, "And every fair from fair sometime declines," discuss the changing course of the season. Quite literally, the change from summer to fall (the change of love in youth to age). He says that nature will not halt these changes.
Quatrain 3: "But thy eternal summer shall not fade," the beauty of the beloved shall never fade, like the real summer does. In the eye of the speaker, the beloved shall always be beautiful and lovely. And, the beloved shall never find death or lines of age.
Couplet: "So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this and this gives life to thee"
As long as there are readers, breathing and seeing, the beloved shall always live. The sonnet shall always live, and it will keep the beloved (and their love) alive.
I hope this summary of a great work helps :)
No comments:
Post a Comment