© Gyldendal, 2012 1

Sonnet 18 By William Shakespeare

Pre-reading

1. Vocabulary

a. Change the meaning of the words by adding a prefix.

Prefix Prefix

perfection certainty

changing typical

permanence transient

mortality constant

relaxed

Learning check

In pairs: student A reads out the words without prefix and student B, without looking at the task,

has to add prefixes to the words.

b. Match words that mean (almost) the same.

unchanging fleeting enduring alter

change eternal

constant transient

c. Turn the following words into nouns.

Noun Noun

immortal permanent

eternal constant

perfect alter

Learning check b. and c.

In pairs: student B reads out the words in the left columns, and student A, without looking at the

tasks, has to come up with the corresponding synonyms and nouns.

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Post-reading LEARNING CHECK

No study aids.

What do you remember?

a) With what does the speaker compare the lover? _________________________________

b) How is the lover going to live eternally? ______________________________________

Text-related assignment

1. Written assignment: Write YOUR OWN sonnet. You may either compose it independently or use one of the templates below.

You must write in iambic pentameter.

There must be a systematic rhyme scheme.

Take advantage of the possibilities given by the structure (quatrains/octave, tercets/sestet,

couplet) when you develop your ideas through the poem.

You must NOT use the word love in the text, but love may be the theme.

Shall I compare a

You are b

a

And b

Sometimes, c

And often d

And every c

By d

But e

Nor f

Nor e

When f

So long g

So long g

Let me not a

Admit impediments b

a

b

O no, c

It is d

c

d

I e

f

e

f

If this g

I g

Wider contexts

1. Critical context: agreement with James Boyd-White.

Not everyone is willing to accept the role of Sonnet 18 as the ultimate English love poem. The

British critic James Boyd-White, for example, argues that the poem is in fact not a love poem at

all as we hear nothing about the beloved. He sees the poem as a self-glorification of the poet:

“What kind of love does 'this' in fact give to 'thee'? We know nothing of the beloved’s form or

height or hair or eyes or bearing, nothing of her character or mind, nothing of her at all, really.

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This 'love poem' is actually written not in praise of the beloved, as it seems, but in praise of

itself. Death shall not brag, says the poet; the poet shall brag. This famous sonnet is in this view

one long exercise in self-glorification, not a love poem at all; surely not suitable for earnest

recitation at a wedding or anniversary party, or in a Valentine.”

James Boyd-White; “The Desire for Meaning in Law and Literature” in Current Legal Problems

2000, vol. 53, p. 142

Do you agree with this view of the poem? Why/why not?

2. Literary Context: other work by the same author: ”Sonnet 73”

Compare sonnet 18 and sonnet 73 with special reference to what each of these sonnets has to say

about love and age.

SONNET 73

That time of year thou mayst in me behold

When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang

Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,

Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.

In me thou seest the twilight of such day

As after sunset fadeth in the west,

Which by and by black night doth take away,

Death's second self, that seals up all in rest.

In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire

That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,

As the death-bed whereon it must expire

Consumed with that which it was nourish'd by.

This thou perceivest, which makes thy love more strong,

To love that well which thou must leave ere long.

Glossary

behold se

bough gren

ruined choirs dele af kirke,

som ligger i ruiner

expire uddø

consume fortære, be

nourished: blive næret

perceive sanse, erkende

ere before