Tuesday, May 12, 2020

Dicussion of the Purpose of Shakespeares Sonnet 18

Shakespeares collection of sonnets is heralded as one of the greatest, most ambitious sonnet collections in English literature. Of these154 sonnets, the first 126 of them are addressed to a fair youth, a beatiful young man, with whom Shakespeare has developed an intimate friendship. The overarching theme of devotion in antimony to mortality denotes that â€Å"Sonnet 18† is predominantly a love poem. Accordingly the purpose of the poem seems initially to be to compare his beloved friends handsomness with a common symbol of beauty, a fine summers day. However, Shakespeare actually provides a pragmatic critique of the conventions of love poetry in his doing so. He not only exposes the flaws of the love poetry through the comparison but†¦show more content†¦This inversion of custom has led to much speculation of Shakespeares sexual orientation. The intimate, seemingly sexually-charged feelings sometimes expressed by the poet has prompted some critics to conclude that th ese poems were initiated out of Shakespeares homosexual or homoerotic attachment (Mukherjee line 12) to the young man. However, â€Å"considered in light of the Renaissance vogue of friendship—which could be of an intense emotional or mental relationship—it is generally agreed that the sonnets originated from the love for a (companion), a love which is platonic† (Mukherjee line 13). Ergo, the girlfriend has been replaced by the friend. Nonetheless, Shakespeare feels that this metaphor cannot do justice to the radiance of his subject. As mentioned, the first quatrains punchline: â€Å"And Summers lease hath all too short a date† describes how the ephemeral summer is too short which alludes to the idea that time takes its toll on a beautiful youths allure. Here Shakespeares diction is very apt. He employs the word â€Å"lease† to describe how the summer is short-lived; in modern English it can be understood as it is rented, temporary, the lease is soon up. Accordingly, Shakespeare wishes the summer would last longer and feels despair as he considers the notion that as the summer glow receeds, so the youths beauty too must fade. Thus Shakspeare tasks himself to

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