TP-CASTT Analysis of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18
1. Title: The title “Sonnet 18” does not suggest anything about the subject, topic or theme of
the poem, but it does carry connotations concerning the author himself. It shows that
Shakespeare has experience in writing sonnets, as this is his 18 th sonnet he has written
according to the title.
2. Paraphrase: A not-very eloquent literal paraphrase of the sonnet:
Let me compare you to a summer’s day
You are more lovely than a summer’s day because:
Summer can present bad weather,
And summer is too short
The sun is too hot sometimes,
And other times it is not bright enough,
And it’s not always beautiful,
Summer’s beauty changes and fades with natural causes
But your beauty will never fade,
You’ll never lose your charm,
Your beauty is immortal and even death cannot take it away from you
You only grow better with time
And as long as humankind continues to live on, and eyes can see,
So do you and your beauty live on.
3. Connotation: Poetic devices used in this sonnet include:
a. Metaphor: A comparison of a summer day to Shakespeare’s object of affection to
illustrate the person’s unsurpassable beauty in Shakespeare’s eyes.
b. Imagery: Vivid images of nature including “Rough winds do shake the darling buds of
May”, “his gold complexion dimmed”, wander’st in his shade”, “eye of heaven shines”.
c. Personification: death is personified in this sonnet with the verb “brag” and the
possessive “his shade” (“Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade”). Heaven is
also personified with the description of the sun being heaven’s eye. The personification
in the sonnet makes the comparison between a non-person (summer day) and a person
more effective.
4. Attitude: The first half of the sonnet’s tone could be described as cynical, because
Shakespeare is pointing out the shortcomings of a near-perfect summer’s day. The tone
changes in the second half to one of admiration and cherishing of the object of affection
that Shakespeare is writing about in his musing about the person’s superior beauty.
5. Shifts: The large shift halfway through the sonnet is noted by the change in tone from
cynical to admiring previously described. The shift occurs after Shakespeare finishes
discussing summer and moves on to describe the second subject and other half of his
comparison.
6. Title: after reading the sonnet the title still carries the same meaning as before, giving away
nothing of the contents of the sonnet.
7. Theme: The theme of this sonnet summed up in one sentence: Shakespeare is expressing
his affection for a person whom he sees as more beautiful than the near-perfection of a
summer’s day, illustrating the way in which a loved one can be the most important thing in
one’s life and to which everything else is dimmed in comparison.