Imagery In 'Sonnet XVIII' By William Shakespeare

Authors and talented writers have the ability to use the style of their sentences and writing to their advantage in order to help readers comprehend their stories and create vivid pictures with extreme detail and emotion. A perfect example of this is shown in the poem “Sonnet XVIII” written by William Shakespeare. Through Shakespeare's use of the elements of writing, such as imagery, diction, and varying forms of syntax, he is able to create lifelike images in the reader's mind and portray his romantic emotions while expressing his love.
To begin, Shakespeare’s detailed form of imagery helps support the romantic tone and depict how the beauty of ‘thee’ is everlasting. The first line of the poem “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” is

To begin, the entirety of the poem is written in short sentences ranging from 7-10 words. For instance the sentence “But thy eternal summer shall not fade” only has 7 words and is short and sweet (9). Despite the shortness of the sentences, Shakespeare is still able to illustrate his romantic tone with the gentle and loving words he writes. Throughout the entire poem he only includes one interrogative sentence, which is the first line he writes asking “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” (1). His reason for making this sentence the only one asking a question is to make it stand out and to introduce the main focus of the poem which is the comparison of his beloved and a summer day. By rhetorically questioning the reader at the start of the poem, he is able to grab their attention and then answer the question in the rest of the poem through his romanticly appealing sentence structure. Other than the first line in the poem, every other line is declarative which helps give the poem a sense of rhythm. The reader can read through the poem easily because it flows well and isn’t complicated, but rather nice and smooth. Shakespeare also includes a few anopharas with the repetition of “And”, “Nor”, and “So” in the beginning of the lines (6, 10, 13). Shakespeare gives the lines that include the repeated words emphasis and importance. It also draws attention to the