Essay On Sonnet 18

The Renaissance began as a new imposition of older knowledge, and it was increasing due to a series of new discoveries and new attitudes. Humanism had its peak at this moment, helped with some of the most important writings of ancient Rome and Greece; earlier ways of seeing the world which encouraged a new exploration of ideas, art, and physical universe.
It was an especially moment for poetry. There were many writers who contributed to develop this kind of literature; they adopted and innovated the forms of poetry and wrote on varied themes; having, as a conclusion, new poetic devices and new linguistic modes of progress. This was the golden age of sonnets. A sonnet is a poetic composition of fourteen lines normally written in iambic pentameters.

In ‘Sonnet 18’ the addressee appears in the first line as well (‘Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?’) Here, the poetic voice starts the poem with a rhetorical question, which captures the attention of the reader right from the first words.
Even if Shakespeare used a different method of writing sonnets, there are some features which share with the Italian writer Petrarch. ‘Sonnet 18’ is made by a hyperbolic comparison; the whole poem is built from a contrast between the addressee and a summer’s day. Petrarch used frequently this technique, making similes of his beloved and physical objects. For example, he wrote in one of his sonnets in the song book: […] ‘E i cape ' d 'oro fin farsi d 'argento,/et lassar le ghirlande e i verdi panni,/e 'l viso scolorir che ne ' miei danni/a llamentar mi fa pauroso et lento.’ (And the golden hair spun fine as silver,/ and the garland laid aside and the green clothes,/ and the delicate face fade,/ that makes me fearful and slow to go weeping.) The technique of comparison, as well as keeping in mind the passing of time, both are very effective to refer to the importance of love and the necessity to live the