Shakespeare's Sonnet 18, is an exercise in self-proclaiming metaphoric style. The intent of the sonnet is to show off the writer's skill at turning words and not the expressed topic of the poem, the ability to use every summer-related metaphor he can to discuss not his love, perhaps, but the subject of his expression. While many interpretations of this sonnet assert that it is a love-poem, that it is a dedication or ode to a specific woman, it can be clearly stated that the poem is not about love, but about the central metaphor itself - as though the subject is simply an exercise. As an exercise in the use of metaphor to describe the objectified woman at the center of the work, Sonnet 18, is perhaps the primary archetypal demonstration of overdone, syrupy, and quite saccharine expressions that are likely to appeal to the "hopeless" romantic.
Sonnet 18, takes place in the present and encompasses no time, space, or location. The entire body of the sonnet is focused on the delivery of language and, as such, it has no substance - as though Shakespeare were making fun of the genre and the typical fare. The poem consists entirely of a description of a person (the subject) using summer-related metaphors. The poem begins with the establishment of the theme, the comparison of the subject to a "summer's day." It then employs metaphors involving weather, nature, temporal space, color, the nature of youth...
The intent of these metaphors is to use both physical and abstract relationships to the subject in a single comprehensive use of the established context.
This is an observation poem, one taken from an almost exclusively internal and thus private view of the subject. At the same time, it is a near-perfect exercise in the imposition of a formal structure upon a subject that, by its very nature, cannot truly be contained within that kind of cage. For example, by taking up the subject in the very first line, "Shall I compare thee to a Summer's day?" The writer is establishing that the poem indeed will be structured within the stated context. Thus, the metaphor structure of the poem is also established - in this one line, we know exactly what will take place and can delight in the participation that our imagination takes along with us as we read.
There is a clear deference to the subject in the poem. "But thy eternal summer shall not fade." Here the author is indicating that while time and seasons change, and summer is considered to be the peak of a life, the memory of the subject will remain centered on this time now. It also indicates an awareness of a deeper attractiveness in the subject that seemingly transcends time. The intent, in the last half of the sonnet, is to demonstrate that the beauty, the nature, the temperament,…
