Beauty, irrefutably, is a common theme in all Shakespearean sonnets. Generally, Shakespeare's love of beauty is expressed towards an indefinite person, or muse. Nowhere is the beauty of Shakespeare's muse expressed more forcefully than in his Sonnet 18. In homage to the magnificence of his muse's beauty, which is described as more glorious than even the seasons of nature, Shakespeare strives to complement this beauty while preserving it and immortalizing it. on the lines of Sonnet 18. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Before Shakespeare's muse, or the beauty of the "Dark Lady," can be immortalized, her greatness must be fully understood. Shakespeare wastes no time in undertaking the task of conveying this beauty, and does so strategically through his first line, which he phrases as a question. "Shall I compare you to a summer's day?" It is clear that answering this question will be the purpose of the Sonnet, and Shakespeare begins to do so right away, with line 2: "Thou art fairer and more temperate." This line not only answers the question posed by line 1, but begins to define the theme of the poem: that Shakespeare's Dark Lady is indeed more beautiful and magnificent than the seasons, namely summer. This theme also represents the thesis of the rhetorical dialectical form of the poem. Lines 3 and 4 continue along this vein of thought, as Shakespeare describes the month of May as having “strong winds” and “summer lease” as “too short.” The words "rough" and "short" carry decidedly negative connotations, which highlight the fact that Shakespeare moves away from regarding summer as pleasant or beautiful as his muse, and tends to cast his muse comparatively in a more favorable light . Following this pattern, lines 5 and 6 refer directly to the summer sun, or "eye of heaven," as it is sometimes "too hot" or often has "its golden complexion dimmed." It is no coincidence that Shakespeare chooses the words “dim” and “too hot” – which have relatively opposite denotations – to describe the sun. The sun, for Shakespeare, as this noteworthy diction suggests, is very inconsistent. Shakespeare implies that he too often finds himself at one unpleasant extreme or the other. It is this thought of inconsistency that guides the reader in Shakespeare's next two lines. Line 7 states that "every fair from fair sometimes declines"; that is, everything that is beautiful, or “right,” will at some point fall, or “decline,” from its beauty. By comparing his muse to the summer season, Shakespeare implies that both are beautiful, regardless of whether his Dark Lady is the more beautiful. In essence, through lines 7 and 8, Shakespeare highlights the fact that no beauty lasts forever; and henceforth that neither the beauty of the seasons, nor the beauty of his muse can last. This thought presents the antithesis of the dialectical form of the Sonnet: if Shakespeare's Dark Lady is more beautiful and magnificent than the seasons, how is it possible that both "by... the changing course of nature", suffer a decline in beauty? it is not possible, and this is the reason why Shakespeare chooses to integrate the beauty of his Dark Lady with the immortality that arises from the lines of his verses. Shakespeare begins by introducing this immortality—the synthesis of the Sonnet's dialectical form—in line 9, while simultaneously creating the poem's vault, or dramatic change of tone. The tone changes from that of those who speak of beauty as something that "will decay", to that of those who speak of beauty as "eternal summer", which "will not fade". Shakespeare describes his muse in the.