Sonnet 18 Figurative Language

Sonnet 18 has many examples of figurative that help support the overall themes of love and time. This poem is a comparison of two different things, nature and the one he loves. Shakespeare uses symbols of time and nature to say that people die and forget but people live on when we write about them. In line four he starts to stress how short summer feels by using metaphors and personification. The speaker is suggesting that a personified summer leased the nice weather and that it has to be given back by the end of the summer. In line nine the metaphor suggests that the subject’s “eternal summer”, being her legacy, will not fade because he has written their story down. The use of metaphors and personification bring the ornate style. He uses elaborate words to convey a simple message of

In the first four lines, the speaker says goodbye to a young woman who he loved too much. He continues by suggesting that he does not have a right to possess this youth, even if he loves her so much. Shakespeare uses rhetorical questions to suggest this and to ask why the speaker thought he deserved her love and attention in the first place. For example the poem reads, “And for that riches where is my deserving? / The cause of this fair gift in me is wanting.” In the next stanza the speaker realizes what the relationship actually means to him and says that it is both of their faults. He says, ” Thyself thou gav'st, thy own worth then not knowing, / Or me, to whom thou gav'st it, else mistaking.” The speaker knows now that he was in the relationship because he loved being youthful. The speaker has a somber tone as he has the realization that he is no longer young. The diction is connotative because it alludes to the theme of youth as well as time. This contributes to the overall style of Shakespeare because it deals with the thematic topic of time while using elaborate words in iambic