So long as men can breathe or eyes can /“So long
lives this, and this gives life to thee . Discuss valuation of art in sonnets writing by Shakespeare.
Sonnet 18 is the best known and most well-loved of all 154
sonnets. It is also one of the most straightforward in language and
intent. The stability of love and its power to immortalize the subject
of the poet's verse is the theme.
Each quatrain of this early sonnet expresses an argument for the
beauty of the fair youth. In the first quatrain, for example, this
beauty cannot be compared to something so temporal as "a
summer's day" which is intemperate.
In the second quatrain, the poet reflects that beauty can fade
from the climate changes, time, or "chance." Simply put, Time
alters beauty. But, in the third quatrain, the poet argues that the
beauty of the fair you will not fade because the youth's beauty will
be preserved in the "eternal lines" of the sonnet. In these lines,
the youth will "growest"; he will flourish in the minds and
imaginations of all who read the sonnet, which "gives life to
thee." Clearly, the heroic couplet of Shakespeare's sonnet is a
restatement of theme.
The poet speaker opens the poem with a question addressed to
the beloved: “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” The next
eleven lines are devoted to such a comparison. In line 2, the
speaker makes conditions what mainly differentiates the young
man from the summer’s day: he is “more lovely and more
temperate.” Summer’s days tend toward extremes: they are
shaken by “rough winds”; in them, the sun (“the eye of heaven”)
often shines “too hot,” or too dim. And summer is fleeting: its date
is too short, and it leads to the withering of autumn, as “every fair
from fair sometime declines.” The final quatrain of the sonnet tells
how the beloved differs from the summer in that respect: his beauty
will last forever (“Thy eternal summer shall not fade...”) and never
die. That’s why the poet is not comparing him to summer day. In
the couplet, the speaker explains how the beloved’s beauty will
accomplish this feat, and not perish because it is preserved in the
poem, which will last forever; Then follows the concluding couplet:
"So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, / So long lives this,
and this gives life to thee." The poet is describing not what the youth
is but what he will be ages hence, as captured in the poet's eternal
verse — or again, in a hoped-for child.
The “procreation” sequence of the first 17 sonnets ended with the
speaker’s realization that the young man might not need children
to preserve his beauty; he could also live, the speaker writes at the
end of Sonnet 17, “in my rhyme.” Sonnet 18, then, is the first
“rhyme”—the speaker’s first attempt to preserve the young man’s
beauty for all time. An important theme of the sonnet (as it is an
important theme throughout much of the sequence) is the power of
the speaker’s poem to defy time and last forever, carrying the
beauty of the beloved down to future generations. The beloved’s
“eternal summer” shall not fade precisely because it is embodied in
the sonnet: “So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,” the
speaker writes in the couplet, “So long lives this, and this
gives life to thee
******
lives this, and this gives life to thee . Discuss valuation of art in sonnets writing by Shakespeare.
Sonnet 18 is the best known and most well-loved of all 154
sonnets. It is also one of the most straightforward in language and
intent. The stability of love and its power to immortalize the subject
of the poet's verse is the theme.
Each quatrain of this early sonnet expresses an argument for the
beauty of the fair youth. In the first quatrain, for example, this
beauty cannot be compared to something so temporal as "a
summer's day" which is intemperate.
In the second quatrain, the poet reflects that beauty can fade
from the climate changes, time, or "chance." Simply put, Time
alters beauty. But, in the third quatrain, the poet argues that the
beauty of the fair you will not fade because the youth's beauty will
be preserved in the "eternal lines" of the sonnet. In these lines,
the youth will "growest"; he will flourish in the minds and
imaginations of all who read the sonnet, which "gives life to
thee." Clearly, the heroic couplet of Shakespeare's sonnet is a
restatement of theme.
The poet speaker opens the poem with a question addressed to
the beloved: “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” The next
eleven lines are devoted to such a comparison. In line 2, the
speaker makes conditions what mainly differentiates the young
man from the summer’s day: he is “more lovely and more
temperate.” Summer’s days tend toward extremes: they are
shaken by “rough winds”; in them, the sun (“the eye of heaven”)
often shines “too hot,” or too dim. And summer is fleeting: its date
is too short, and it leads to the withering of autumn, as “every fair
from fair sometime declines.” The final quatrain of the sonnet tells
how the beloved differs from the summer in that respect: his beauty
will last forever (“Thy eternal summer shall not fade...”) and never
die. That’s why the poet is not comparing him to summer day. In
the couplet, the speaker explains how the beloved’s beauty will
accomplish this feat, and not perish because it is preserved in the
poem, which will last forever; Then follows the concluding couplet:
"So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, / So long lives this,
and this gives life to thee." The poet is describing not what the youth
is but what he will be ages hence, as captured in the poet's eternal
verse — or again, in a hoped-for child.
The “procreation” sequence of the first 17 sonnets ended with the
speaker’s realization that the young man might not need children
to preserve his beauty; he could also live, the speaker writes at the
end of Sonnet 17, “in my rhyme.” Sonnet 18, then, is the first
“rhyme”—the speaker’s first attempt to preserve the young man’s
beauty for all time. An important theme of the sonnet (as it is an
important theme throughout much of the sequence) is the power of
the speaker’s poem to defy time and last forever, carrying the
beauty of the beloved down to future generations. The beloved’s
“eternal summer” shall not fade precisely because it is embodied in
the sonnet: “So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,” the
speaker writes in the couplet, “So long lives this, and this
gives life to thee
******
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