He argues that the summer season is too short, unlike his lover, who will live forever with the power of his poetry.įor instance, Shakespeare writes: “And summer’s lease hath all too short a date” in the fourth line. 18, the author attempts to attribute these properties to nature, and at the same time, distinguish it from his lover’s beauty. Quite often, Shakespeare uses personification in the depiction of nature, which is endowed with certain human features. Personification is a type of metaphor, which transfers the properties and characteristics of animate objects to inanimate ones.

In the final couplet, Shakespeare emphasizes the fact that as long as people read his poem, his lover is still considered to be “alive.” Therefore, Shakespeare’s lover has been metaphorically immortalized forever within the lines of his sonnet, despite all the “rough winds” and “sun being dimmed.” Shakespeare’s metaphors reflect both the stylistic achievements of his era and his creative personality. By that, the author manages to “engrave” his lover into the words in the verse, therefore making his lover immortal. “When in eternal lines to time thou grow’ st” (line 12) is a line where “eternal lines” is a metaphor for poetry. This line could also be viewed as a personification of inanimate things, as the word “darling” is usually applied to humans. “Darling buds” symbolizes beauty and love, and in the line, Shakespeare states that love and grace are not everlasting phenomena. For instance, “Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May” (line 3) is the line where Shakespeare uses metaphor and symbolism to convey his idea of beauty. In the 18th sonnet, Shakespeare uses metaphor to effectively develop a vivid and memorable image in the reader’s mind and convey a particular idea.

Sonnet 18 iambic pentameter