Shakespeare uses nature as a power, illustrating how its beauty or ugliness can also be the beauty or ugliness of love. In Sonnet 18, the speaker is comparing his love to a summer’s day. On the surface, the poem is simply a statement of praise about the beauty of the beloved; summer tends to unpleasant extremes of windiness and heat, but the beloved is always mild and “more temperate.” Summer is per

sonified as the “eye of heaven” with its “gold complexion.” The love that is spoken about is compared to everlasting nature. By doing this, the speaker is, at the same time, trying to preserve the beauty of his love. Shakespeare writes, “By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;/ But thy eternal summer shall not fade.” Shakespeare uses the speaker to tell of his love that will not perish because he has preserved her in the poem. “So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.”

As much as Sonnet 18 attempts to give life to love through nature, Sonnet 116 is an attempt to define love by telling of both what it is and what it is not. While Shakespeare uses nature in this sonnet quite sparingly, its impact on the entire poem is much the same had he used it in more abundance. The speaker uses the metaphor of a star, possibly even the North Star, to explain what love is. This love is much like a point of guidance for a ship lost on the endless sea of the world. It is the point of reference and repose in a troubled, complicated world. The love in sonnet 18 “is the star to every wandering bark.” While brief, Shakespeare still presents the reader with this incredible, lasting image of love being a guide to the lost, sustaining in that its “worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.” Sh

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