Shakespeares definition of love in sonnets 18 and 130

Beauty (byoo’te) n. - A quality that pleases or delights the senses or mind.

This paper is focuses on the definition of Love in sonnets 18 and 130 by William Shakespeare. In the society we live in today, the true meaning of Love gets lost and the world confuses it with so many other things. Shakespeare had the right idea all along. This paper shows that the definition of Love according to these two poems is, inner beauty. This paper will first talk about sonnet 18, and break it down to its true meaning, then do the same to sonnet 130. And then at the end, I’ll bring it all together to show Shakespeare’s true meaning of Love.

In sonnet 18 Shakespeare talks about things such as time, age, and something that conquers all, an “inner beauty”. This is sonnet 18 paraphrased by Alphonso Alvarez.

Shall I Compare you to a Summer’s Day?

You are more lovely and more delightful:

Rough winds shake the much loved buds of May

And everything that is beautiful will lose its beauty

So long as there are people on this earth,

I love to hear her speak, but I know

Nor will death claim you for his own,

Nor lose the Beauty that you possess;

Sonnet 130 compares the person in the sonnet to a number of other beauties, but always against the person.

Some topics in this essay:
Shakespeare Love, William Shakespeare, Summer’s Day, Love Love, inner beauty, sonnet 18, summer’s day, lose beauty, nature’s planned course, chance nature’s planned, beauty chance nature’s, person summer’s day, true meaning, lose beauty chance, definition love, beauty chance, rough winds, chance nature’s, nature’s planned,