I first read Sonnet 18 in my Literature honors class in high school. I was young then; I didn’t understand much of the sonnet. Years later, I have come to read it about seven times and I see things differently. I see why it is a masterpiece. The sonnet rings true to everything it says. Yet, there is a hidden gem that most people miss; beauty is mocked in a wrong way. The theme is that Literature’s longevity outweighs beauty’s ephemeral longevity.
The poem starts out “shall I compare thee to a Summer’s day?” I always wondered why not a Spring day, or a Winter’s day, or an Autumn day. It is quite obvious that only Spring can compete with Summer in beauty. Yet, it sometimes snows in the Spring. Furthermore, there is allergy season in America in the Spring. The said day is optimal for beauty: no snow. The person being described is “more lovely and is more temperate than a Summer’s day.”
What are the problems with a Summer’s day? “Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May.” It might be one of the most pleasant days of the Summer: one with rather low humidity, low scorching heat, and very little wind. “And Summer’s lease hath all too short a date.” Summer is simply too short: three months. If the said person’s beauty is like the Summer’s day for the duration of the Summer, the said person’s beauty would only last three months out of the year: once a year.“Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines.” The Summer days get too hot. Sometimes they are brutal to bear because of the heat.
What else is wrong? Beauty has its flaws. “And every fair from fair sometimes declines.” Beauty never remains at its all time peak forever. “But thy eternal summer shall not fade.” The person along with beauty is mocked. Their eternal summer has to fade. Aging causes everyone to lose his/her beauty. One might retain a hint that he/she was once beautiful in their younger days; yet that is not guaranteed. “ Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade.” Beauty is severely mocked here. No one is above death. No one is immortal.
Why is literature key? Literature is key because it contains the alphabetical sentence which records: be it fiction, poetry, or an autobiography. It ultimately outlives beauty in longevity. “So long as man can breathe or eye can see, so long lives this, and this gives life to thee.” This is the punch line in the poem. What is the difference between beauty’s longevity and literature’s longevity? Because of this sonnet, most people will know that there was a beautiful person that Shakespeare was in love with whose love was unrequited. He was angry enough that he described how fleeting her beauty was in mocking terms. So long as man can see and breathe and haven’t forgotten how to read, they will be able to read this Sonnet and deduce my previous conclusion.
Literature’s longevity far outweighs beauty’s longevity because of death. Once something is written and published, it is hard to censure it. How does one kill literature? I can think of very little ways to do so.If it is placed on the internet, where the digital copies are viral, it will live forever until the whole internet crashes. It might even be recoverable after a crash. Does literature have beauty? I know it is not an ephemeral subject. However, there is unseen beauty in anything that preserves an understanding of a written text.