Sonnet 18 W. Shakespeare

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• havo
• Leerjaar 4

Sonnet 18 W. Shakespeare

Analyze themes, structure, language and interpretation. 

Lesson goals

Students are able to identify and analyze literary devices such as metaphor, personification, and imagery used in Sonnet 18, enhancing their comprehension and its impact on the reader. 

Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets, or short poems, that were all published together in 1609. These sonnets can be split into two groups: the first 126 are about a young man, who we call the Fair Youth, and the rest are about a woman called the Dark Lady.

In these sonnets, Shakespeare talks about many things like love, beauty, time, and how life doesn't last forever. But love is the main thing he talks about. He looks at love in different ways, like romantic love, friendship, and how time changes things.

Sonnet 18 is one of these poems and it's very famous. It's special because it talks about love, beauty, and how things don't last forever. People love it because it's beautiful and has themes that never get old.

Sonnet 18 is the first poem in Shakespeare's collection where he talks about keeping someone's beauty alive forever with words. In the poem, he says the person's beauty is like a perfect summer's day and that writing about them will make their beauty last forever.

Sonnet 18 is about how beautiful things can last forever through art, even when time passes and things change. This shows how much Shakespeare was thinking about time and wanting to keep beauty safe from it.

The structure of sonnet 18

In Sonnet 18, a "quatrain" is a group of four lines, and a "couplet" is two rhyming lines at the end of the poem. Sonnet 18 has three quatrains followed by a couplet. Each quatrain usually talks about a different idea, while the couplet wraps up the poem's main message.

Literary devices

1. Metaphor: This is when something is described by directly comparing it to something else, without using "like" or "as".

2. Personification: This is when human qualities are given to non-human things.

3. Imagery: This is when vivid language is used to create mental images or sensory experiences for the reader.

4. Alliteration: This is when words that start with the same sound are used close together.

Identify one example of metaphore, personification, imagery, and alliteration from the sonnet.

Interpret the metaphor: Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? What is the significance of this specific line to the whole sonnet? Why is this relevant?

Interpret the personification: Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines. What is the significance of this specific line to the whole sonnet? Why is this relevant to the tone of the poem?

Interpret the imagery: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May. Why does this appeal to your senses and make you feel certain emotions?

What are your thought about this class?