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Sonnet 18


Sonnets do not seem so dull suddenly. 





Most of us hate hot and sultry summer days, don't we? Well then. We should be intrigued to witness a minority group that is interested in them. To such a group belongs Shakespeare. Yes. The very same person who penned pearls of wisdom on the landscape of love, the agony of pain and the anti-ephemeral nature of reproduction.

Femininity is mostly associated with beauty. William ventures to an extent where he undermines the magnificence of the Sun illuminating Earth, and elevates the beauty of his love. However delve further into the sonnet and you will find a parallel story emerging. A story of the Sun's glory! Weaving both extremes into a single sonnet, he implores the reader to make a choice.

Persons who are and have been in love would relate the sonnet to a woman's beauty while the rest would relate it to the Sun. Note the lines 'Rough winds...short a date'. Winds of high velocity may obscure the brightness of the Sun, but only temporarily. Whenever he ventures to glorify Sun's magnificence, he applies caution immediately. The first half of this sonnet proceeds with caution, and to a love-experienced person, it offers an altogether different perspective. That of inspiration in the face of obstacles. That of failures which mars not the beauty of his love.

He begins the second half with the certainty that there will always be a decline in beauty at some instance in life. Through the prism of eternal influence, he marvels at the Sun and draws a parallel to his love's beauty. He emphasizes eternity (of both the Sun's and the lover's) with events that never can change (eyes which see or men who breathe). He also urges the reader to procreate. He has hidden this in plain sight! Read the line again "Nor shall Death brag thou wanderest in his shade"! Muse on those lines for a moment.

Reading Bard's works sure does offer a plethora of opportunities to uncover different angles of meaning to a statement, does not it? 

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