25 pages • 50 minutes read
Sonnet 18
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Discussion Starters
1. On the surface, “Sonnet 18” is a fairly straightforward love poem in which the speaker expresses the unmatched beauty of the person addressed. Yet it is the speaker whose words lend the subject’s beauty its eternal qualities by immortalizing them in verse. With that in mind, is the poem more about the speaker than the subject? If so, can this really be qualified as a love poem?
2. Death is only mentioned once and in passing in the poem, yet its specter hangs over the entire sonnet. How does the poem implicitly and explicitly address mortality and the universal human fears associated with it? What is the effect of personifying death as a surmountable adversary, rather than an inevitable force of nature?
3. “Sonnet 18” is arguably the most famous of Shakespeare’s 154 sonnets. Why do you think that is? What unique features have allowed it to endure for centuries, not only in classrooms but also as a pop culture touchstone?
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By William Shakespeare
