Ready to Teach.it
ANALYSIS OF SHAKESPEARE’S SONNET 18
V. Henriet
Lesson plan
Class:
 3rd-4th year student’s
 Intermediate level
Prerequisites:
 the class should have already studied Shakespeare’s biography, his main works
and should also have a general idea of what a sonnet is.
Lecture organisation:
 Time: 50 mins.
 Additional tools needed: overhead projector, one handout of the sonnet for
each student in order to allow them to take notes on the text while explaining
and showing the PPT slides.
NB: Suggested structure:
 Introduction: first reading of the sonnet
1
Ready to Teach.it
 1st part: information on Shakespeare’s sonnets collection (structure and
themes)
 2nd part: crucial aspects of the chosen sonnet: themes and main elements
 Conclusion: guided analysis of Sonnet 18
Texts:
 Text to be read in class: Sonnet 18
 Works cited: Shakespeare’s Sonnets Collection.
Objectives:
 Students will learn the basic structure of an English Sonnet (i.e., the
Elizabethan Form)
 They will learn some figures of speech and how to paraphrase a sonnet
 Thanks to the visual reinforcement they should more easily remember the
sonnet, and its main themes.
2
Ready to Teach.it
Shakespeare, Sonnet 18 – (Valentina Henriet)
The aim of this lesson is to help students understand 1) what a sonnet is 2) some of the messages
the Poet wanted to pass down.
NB: in order to “break the ice” it could be a good idea to elicit from the students the meaning of
“sonnet”.
Slide 2 – Sonnet 18
The lesson begins with a first reading of Sonnet 18. This should enable students to have a general
idea of what a sonnet is and particularly to focus on the subject of the lesson.
Slide 3 – Contextualisation of Sonnet 18
Sonnet 18 is part of Shakespeare’s Sonnets Collection. Most of them were composed in 1590’s, but
actually there are evidences of some sonnets written as early as 1580’s. The Collection was
published in 1609 (with the exception of Passionate Pilgrims Sonnets published in 1599, a book
which contains mostly poems not written by Shakespeare). Most of the sonnets are written in what
is called the Elizabethan Form (In addition to the brief notes proposed here, it may be useful to
outline the principal differences between the Italian Sonetto form and the Elizabethan Sonnet form).
Slide 4 – Themes
In many of his sonnets, Shakespeare stresses the idea that love outlasts time, and that poetry outlasts
love. (cf. E.g. 116; NB: It may be interesting to make students reflect on this idea). In his
conception, poetry is never going to fade because poetry is handed down to posterity. Differently
from time which flies by, and love that may last longer but is not eternal, poetry is forever.
After dealing with these ideas, one can have a look at the structure of the Sonnets.
Slide 5 – Two groups of sonnets
Shakespeare’s Sonnets are divided into two main groups: the first one is composed of 126 sonnets
which are addressed to an unidentified young man who is considered the fair youth (NB: Youth is
used here as a noun, not an adjective). The first seventeen of these urge the young man to marry so
that he can pass on his superior qualities to a child, thereby allowing future generations to enjoy and
appreciate these qualities when the child becomes a man. In Sonnet 18, Shakespeare alters his
viewpoint, saying his own poetry may be all that is necessary to immortalize the young man and his
qualities.
The other 28 sonnets are addressed to a mysterious dark lady who is a sensuous, irresistible woman
of questionable morals who captivates the poet. References to the dark lady also appear in previous
sonnets (35, 40, 41, 42), in which Shakespeare reproaches the young man for an apparent liaison
with the dark lady.
3
Ready to Teach.it
Slide 6 – Focus on Sonnets addressed to the young man
These poems express the poet’s love for the young man and claim that the young man’s beauty will
be preserved forever. They celebrate the poet’s love for the young man by exploring from all the
angles the feelings the young man inspires the poet.
Slide 7 – Focus on Sonnets addressed to the young man
Shakespeare uses his poem as a way to provide the youth with an eternal existence and
subsequently makes it evident that Shakespeare sees the young man as more than a human, he sees
him as a god. There is a repeated idea of the poetry’s capacity to immortalise.
Slide 8 – Sonnet 18
From here the focus of the lesson is on Sonnet 18. This Sonnet develops around a convention often
used in Renaissance poems about the transience of youth and beauty through the comparison with
aspects of nature.
Slide 9 – Sonnet 18
Using a typical convention of Renaissance poems about the transience of youth and beauty and in
order to reach his aim Shakespeare compares the young man’s beauty to a summer’s day.
From here the turning point of the poem: Shakespeare says that as in a real summer, the young
man’s youth and beauty won’t last forever. However his beauty will never fade in the world of the
poem. Because art will preserve the idea of the youth. (here Shakespeare’s theory is recalled).
Slide 10 – Analysis if 1st quatrain
And now, finally, we can analyse the sonnet. We start with the first quatrain. On the left of the
screen there is the sonnet, while on the right there is the paraphrase. The sonnet appears
immediately, but in order to see the paraphrases of each line you have to click each time.
(It is possible to involve the students by asking them “if it was up to you, what would you analyze?
Which are the key elements in a sonnet?)
The first quatrain introduces how short summer can be. The sonnet starts with a question which the
rest of the sonnet answers. The comparison between the young man and the summer’s day evokes
light, life and brilliance. As a result, the poet establishes that the young man is much more perfect
and reliable than a summer’s day.
Shakespeare, to answer to the question, shows all of summer’s imperfections, beginning with the
example that rough winds come in May and disturb the darling flowers. May is the month that
marks the very beginning of summer and it is a time in the year when the weather starts to warm up
and flowers are blossoming. Shakespeare uses a force of nature when he speaks about the wind. The
image suggested is that of the hot wind of May coming and blowing petals off beautiful flowers.
The wind may be a metaphor for obstacles in life.
4
Ready to Teach.it
“And summer’s lease hath all too short a date”: this comparison implies that the youth’s beauty lasts
all year long; there is no limit on it and there is no time clock ticking to end it. The theme of time is
one of great importance in this poem. Shakespeare feels as though the youth is not subject to time or
age. Summer’s splendour and beauty may end, but the youth’s will not.
(It may be motivating to contextualize where the sonnet was written in order to make some
considerations with students about the summer’s conditions in London)
Slide 11 – Analysis of 2nd quatrain
Paraphrases of the second quatrain.
The following lines offer explanations of why the comparison to a summer’s day is not good
enough. Shakespeare expresses that the sun shines too much some days and it is too hot. Other days
the sun’s face is hidden by clouds and it is overcast. His personification of the sun lends a hand to
comparison. The sun is too hot, but the youth is, as before, temperate. The sun’s golden complexion
may be hidden by clouds but the youth’s beauty and golden complexion are never hidden. There is
great power in the comparison of the youth to the sun. Shakespeare believes that all the power the
sun possesses, brilliance, heat, colour, blindness, and life are nothing compared to the power and
perfection of the young man.
“And every fair from fair sometimes declines, By chance or nature’s changing course untrimmed:”
By saying that every fair from fair declines, Shakespeare is saying that every beautiful thing, at
some point, grows less and less beautiful and that it reaches the point when it can never be as
beautiful as when it first came into being. All beautiful things will fall from perfection. Like
summer, beauty has a time limit on it. This is not the case with the young man. His beauty will
never fade and he will always retain the state of perfection.
Slide 12 – Analysis of 3rd quatrain
Paraphrases of the third quatrain
The third quatrain introduces the merging of heavenly life with that of earthly love. At this point
Shakespeare has finished explaining how summer is inadequate compared to the youth and begins
to tell his promise to the youth.
“But thy eternal summer shall not fade…”: the eternal summer represents the eternity of the youth’s
perfection. The eternal summer won’t ever fade and it will never lose its original beauty. This again
affirms that the youth is not subject to time. He is immortal.
Shakespeare finally declares that the reason that the youth will always be immortal and in perfect
state is death has no power over him.
“Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade...”: Unlike Death’s eventual victory over every
living thing, it will not have any affect on the youth. The reason has to be found in the fact that
youth will be captured forever in Shakespeare’s verse and because of these lines, the youth will
remain immortal and will grow as time grows.
5
Ready to Teach.it
Slide 13 – Analysis of the final couplet
Paraphrases of the final couplet.
“So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this give life to thee.”: this is
the final part of Shakespeare’s promise to the youth and it expresses that as long as man inhabits the
earth, the verse will always exist, and because of the existence of the verse, the youth will live on
forever in the words. His image and beauty will always be captured in time and as a consequence,
he will remain immortal. The verse gives the youth a means for immortality and eternal existence
because it transcends the time barrier.
The final couplet states that the beloved’s “eternal summer” will not die as long as there are people
alive to read this declaration of all consuming love.
These lines suggest that his friend will grow or exist within the lines of the poem
Slide 14 –15-16 Figure of speech
Now, let’s see some figures of speech. With one click the definition comes out. To make the
example pops up you have to click again.
(It is possible to show students the definitions and then go back to the sonnet and make them find
out examples of rhetoric devices)
Slide 17 – Meter
In verse and poetry, meter is a recurring pattern of stressed and unstressed, that is to say unaccented,
syllables in lines of a set length. A line contains ten syllables in which the first syllable is
unstressed, the second is stressed, the third is unstressed, the fourth is stressed, and so on until the
line reaches the tenth syllable. The line then looks like the following one containing a pattern of
unstressed and stressed syllables:
Shall I com PARE thee TO a SUM mer’s DAY?
The stressed syllables are in capital letter.
Iambic pentameter is essentially the metre or the basic rhythm of Shakespeare’s sonnets. It has
accents and unaccented syllables.
Slide 18 – Final observations
In conclusion we can say that Shakespeare successfully depicted in this sonnet his life as a youth
and how love had gone at that point of his life. Sonnet 18 has always been considered great for its
lyrical simplicity; its peaceful, sunny imagery, and its insight into the world of Shakespeare.
Through his lines, it was evident that he viewed love as something that is that powerful that it will
exist forever, an immortal entity. Shakespeare then knew and was confident that his works will live
on forever as well.
6
Ready to Teach.it
To conclude our analysis it is interesting to divide the sonnet according to its contents. What we can
see is a division of the sonnet in 3 sections. In lines 1 and 2 the question to which the rest of the
sonnet answers is asked, from line 3 to line 8 all summer negative aspects are pointed out and
finally from line 9 to line 14 all young man positive characteristics are outlined.
7