Shakespeare's Sonnets18 And 73 Comparison

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Shakespearean Sonnet The Shakespearean sonnet is that of vast interpretation and usage of complex literary devices. Throughout Shakespeare’s hundreds of works, his sonnets provide a certain deeper aspect to them; each one with it’s own clues and surprise ending. Specifically noted, his 73rd sonnet and 18th sonnet (better known as “shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”) have their own special interpretations, similarities, and differences when put side-by-side in anyone’s eye. To the untrained eye, these pieces of work may not bare many likenesses, but they actually are quite similar. For starters, both use strong literary devices. In the quotes “to hot the eye of heaven shines” from sonnet 18 and “Death’s second self” from 73: Shakespeare use personification to give attributes of life to the sun and makes death seem as though it is a walking, breathing person. Another device that Shakespeare takes advantage of his metaphors. For example, the snippets “these boughs which shake against the cold” and “summers lease hath all too short a date” are both excellent use of the device. The final major similarity is the use of nature in the poems, specifically summer and fall seasons. The quote above shows the use of summer in sonnet 18 and the explanation of the changing leaves, and change in the sun’s appearance in the sky in sonnet 73 shows the usage of the seasons to aid his metaphor of age in his poetry. In Shakespeare's sonnet 18, the speaker starts by asking rhetorically, "Would it do justice to your beauty if I compared you to a summer's day?" Then he answers his own question by saying, "No, because you are more beautiful than that." Then the poem devotes several lines to detailing the ways in which the beauty of summer is not perfect and doesn't last. Then it concludes by boasting, "Your beauty will never fade and die because my poem has made you immortal."

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