Shakespeare's 'Beloved' in Sonnet 18

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I have chosen “Sonnet 18” by William Shakespeare from the Bedford text. This sonnet first line begins “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”(A Portable Anthology, 2009, p.465) it is written in the classic style English or Shakespearean sonnet. The sonnet form used by Shakespeare, composed of three quatrains and a terminal couplet in iambic pentameter with the rhyme pattern abab,cdcd, efef, gg(answers.com, 2010). This sonnet 18 is a part of 154 sonnets the first 126 were wrote by Shakespeare to address a young man full of great beauty and promise. This developed many questions on Shakespeare’s sexuality whether his love for this young man was friendly or sexual. In the mid 1600’s a publisher released the 126 sonnets by changing his “he” to “she”. Then in the early 1700’s it was changed back after much debate finding that he was indeed writing these sonnet to a young man. However, perhaps now still under some debate you will find articles using he or she. These sonnets usually support the methodical consideration of an argument or idea, which is then cleverly demonstrated or summed up in some way in the final couplet. In this sonnet it describes a young man being compared to a summer’s day, although, this sonnet does not following his known Shakespearean sonnet form. The final couplet is pulls us in to new path by saying poetry is immortal. This sonnet theme is based upon Shakespeare’s beloved friend, a young man, being compared to a summer’s day, also emphasizing on how his beloved’s beauty shall be forever remembered in the sonnet as his poetry will too. The passages have metaphorical references all throughout, the first line bring us “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”(A Portable Anthology, 2009, p.465) meaning in our modern language “Shall I compare you to a summer’s day?” as well as line 12 “When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:” (A Portable

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