Writing Journal

Shakespeare's sonnet: Shall I compare thee to a summer's day...

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

One of Shakespeare's best-known poem, Sonnet 18 or Shall I compare thee to a summer's day really touched me. Of course, I was moved by the poet's description and evocation of his profound love for the woman he's addressing this poem to; but, the part that really interested me was his celebration of literature's power, of words' power and influence.

In this sonnet, Shakespeare declares that words can conquer time, the greatest enemy that can destroy everything in the end, even the most glorious beauty. The beloved woman's loveliness shall not disappear, because it is forever living in the poem's lines. The poet makes a statement: for him, literature is extremely powerful, because it can bring to life a whole world - people, places, times, opinions, emotions. Words are like magical formulas that can bring back the dead or make the living immortal.

I quite agree with Shakespeare on this subject; being myself an avid reader (of poetry, of essays, of novels and of short stories) and sometimes a timid writer, I fully understand Shakespeare's point of view.

What gives this Shakespearian sonnet such a strong and transcendent meaning is the simplicity of its literary composition, of its metaphors and of its focused scope of descriptions. In reaction to this type of writing, the theme of the power of literature is used to its uttermost potential; the words are reachable, whether or not you studied thoroughly the sonnet or Shakespeare’s work in general. Therefore, the message of this poem, as it has been previously stated — the immortality associated with the power of words — can be considered as true. When you read “[s]o long as men can breathe or eyes can see, / So long lives this and this gives life to thee”, you realize that those verses reflect, not only Shakespeare’s point of view on the fact that we can find timelessness in words, but also that, even though mentalities change, the core of human nature is immutable and feelings experienced before can still be understood with a great amount of comprehension today.

Being one of Shakespeare’s most widely know sonnet; the sonnet 18 is today a reminder of the power of words. In the sonnet Shakespeare professes explicitly that his poem will carry the lady’s beauty over time and render it immortal; today the simple fact that we are writing about this in our English class proves the veracity of his claim. It makes it even more powerful and touching to be the eyes who read the poem and give it all its meaning and power.

Shakespeare proves again that he really is master of his art by touching people over centuries. He knew the power of words, wrote about it and used it in the best way he could: to show his love and give beauty immortality.

PS sorry we did it in a team of three. We did it while we were working on our novel discussion on monday; we thought we would do two things at the same time. We hope it doesn't bother you to much.