Book Review of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 and 116
Inspired by two sonnets of Master Shakespeare, Sonnet 18 and Sonnet 116, I
have to say that love is the strongest power to life. Both of them reveal this point in
different ways, and indeed, both are exquisite.
Sonnet 18 has the best interpretation that love can surpass anything including
time and death. As the saying goes, beauty is the eyes of the beholder. Once in love,
you think your affectionate lover is the most beauteous, fabulous, extraordinary
creature in the world. Shakespeare compares his fair to a summer’s day and she is
more lovely and more temperate. (Sonnet 18, line 1, 2) What’s more, the summer may
be too short, hot and dimmed, but the fair will hold on that beauty which she so richly
possesses. Finally, full of confidence, Shakespeare asserts his beloved will live as
long as “men can breathe, or eyes can see” (Line 13). It is love that blinds this young
man’s eyes, conquers his heart to appreciate the fair’s beauty to this degree. It is love
that bestows the immortal fairness to the lady. “Nor lose possession of that fair thou
ow'st. Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade.” (Line 11, 12) Love has
overcome the time and death which makes an eternal intimacy between two people.
Sonnet 116 has further explained the power of love. “Let me not to the marriage
of true minds admit impediments.” (Sonnet116, line 1) This line illustrate that true
love can give people the courage to overcome any obstacles. It will hold its constancy
and fidelity, and won’t “alters when it alteration finds, or bends with the remover to
remove.” (Line 3, 4) In addition, love plays the role of guidance to light our way in
darkness. The poet compares it to a beacon that is permanent and unshakeable, always
there as a guide to the storm tossed mariner, as well as the Pole or North Star that
inform us of the direction. “Love's not Time's fool,” (Line 9) although rosy lips and
cheeks may be cut down by Time’s sickle. “Love alters not with his brief hours and
weeks, but bears it out even to the edge of doom.” (Line 11, 12) Love will remain
what it is as time goes on.
Both of the two poems talk about the eternity of love. In Sonnet 18, it goes “So
long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, so long lives this, and this gives life to thee.”
(Line 13, 14) and in Sonnet 116 it is“Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
but bears it out even to the edge of doom.” (Line 11, 12) The last two lines of Sonnet
116 have a stronger tone of statement: “If this be error and upon me proved, I never
writ, nor no man ever loved.” It has made its seemingly claim that love is eternal.
Eternity, consistency, and fidelity are the characters of love. It is irrefutable to
say that love is the strongest power of life. I want to quote the last two lines of Sonnet
116 to end my essay, “If this be error and upon me proved, I never writ, nor no man
ever loved.”
Luna Zhang