Analyzing Sonnet 18Summer is a warm, delightful time of the year often associated with rest and recreation.Shakespearecompares his love to a summer's day inSonnet 18. We will first interpret this sonnet line by line:Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?(Right away, Shakespeare presents his metaphor. He is comparing his love to a summer's day.)Thou art more lovely and more temperate:(Shakespeare believes his love is more desirable and has a more even temper than summer.)Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,(Before summer, strong winds knock buds off of the flowering trees.)And summer's lease hath all too short a date:(Summer goes by too quickly.)Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines,(Sometimes summer days are just too hot!)And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;(Some summer days are cloudy.)And every fair from fair sometime declines,(Everything beautiful in nature eventually fades away.)By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;(The changes happen either by accident or through nature's natural cycles.)But thy eternal summer shall not fade(But you, my love, have the best characteristics of summer, and these will never go away.)Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;(Your beauty will never decline.)Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,(You will never look as if you are on the brink of death.)When in eternal lines to time thou growest:(Because I've written these lines about you, even over time . . .)So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,(As long as there are humans alive on this planet . . .)So long lives this and this gives life to thee.

Sonnet 71(Addressed to the Unidentified Young Man)No longer mourn for me when I am deadMourn for me only as long as the bell tolls

Than you shall hear the surly sullenbellbell: church bell at funeral

Give warning to the world thatI am fledI am fled: I am dead

From this vile world,with vilest worms to dwell:with vilest worms to dwell: to rest in my grave

Nay, if you read this line, remember not

The hand that writ it; for I love you so

That I in your sweet thoughts would be forgot

If thinking on me then should make you woe.

O, if, I say, you look upon this verseIf you read this after I am dead

When I perhapscompounded am with clay,compounded with clay: buried

Do not so much as my poor name rehearse.don't even mention my name

But let your love even with my life decay,and let your love for me die

......Lest the wise world should look into your moanOtherwise, the world might see you grieving

......And mock you with me after I am gone.and mock you for it.

......Sonnet 71 Meaning........When I am dead, don't mourn for me any longer than it takes to hear the doleful church bell ring at my funeral, alerting the world that I have left the world to live in a grave with worms. No, if you read this line, don't remember the hand that wrote it. For I love you so much that I don't want you to fret over me if doing so will make you sad. O, if, you read this verse when I am buried in clay, do not so much as mention my insignificant name. Instead, let your love decay, just as I decay, lest the world mock you for hanging onto theonnet 71, No longer mourn for me when I am deadPage historylast edited bySusie Crowson6 years agoI. Dramatic SituationDeath, love, and mourning prevail as the themes in this sonnet.The deceased acts as the speaker of the work. The audience takes the role of the love/lover of the deceased.The deceased calls upon his love and urges his love to refrain from mourning for the deceased lest, in his state of weakness, the world take advantage of the mourner. The announcement of death comes as an image of the church bell ringing (line 2). The body made one with the earth (line 10) further completes this image along with the body left in the company of worms (line 4).The occasion of the poem happens after death, as mentioned in line 1 with that conditional, when, I am dead.The speaker writes to express what reaction his love should adopt upon his death. The speaker seeks to spare his love the pain that might await him if the world takes advantage of the mourners weakened state. Love motivates the speaker.II. No longer mourn for me when I am deadIII. Shakespeare achieves his purpose

Shakespeare expresses care for the living, the purpose of his poem (Guyer), by using the hypothetical situation of death to mentor the audience (as the speaker mentors his love) in what he considers appropriate for a reaction to death.Shakespeare shows the deceased embracing his death by painting an image of the deceased molded together with the clay in the ground and accompanied by worms in lines 4 and 10. This unity invites the reader to also embrace death and thus creates intolerance for mourning, a possible reaction if rejecting death. Shakespeare, through the speaker, also cares for the living by pointing out to them that the wise world seeks to prey on their vulnerabilities. The sly world knows when to attack. The world in its wisdom preys on the unshielded emotional distress of the living. Shakespeare also shows preferance for the living by his attempts to boost the status of the audience in line 11. Shakespeare implies a superior status of the living audience as he humbles the dead by calling it poor. Shakespeare prefers to find in the living a passive and guarded response to misfortune. The educative tone underlies the mentoring given to the audience. Shakespeare, through the speaker, wants to save the audience (the living) from mockery while they undergo the influence of their emotions (line 14). Thus, he uses the inevitable surge of emotions at death to teach them that even inevitable emotions need to be kept at check to prevent the one experiencing the emotion from getting hurt. Shakespeare's warnings through the speaker sucessfully help him achieve his purpose of caring for the living.

IV. CommentaryShakespeares advice about emotions and view on death apply to todays society. Our society needs to challenge their emotions to make sure the emotions do not get the better of them. Shakespeare integrates the body with its terminal medium of dirt and worms to help us forget the deceased in our sweet thoughts (line 7), a parallel to burial of both body and emotions. The bells call out a message of detachment. And so we detach our mourning from those whom have passed. "No longer mourn for me when I am dead" (line 1).