Like most Shakespearean sonnets, Sonnet 18 consists of 14 lines of iambic pentameter, with a rhyme scheme of abab cdcd efef gg. The poem is composed of three quatrains and a final couplet.
Many of Shakespeare's sonnets address themes of love, beauty, and mortality, and Sonnet 18 is no exception. Here, the speaker argues that although "Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May" (3), and time will "fade" his love's beauty, his/her "eternal summer" (9) has been immortalized through verse. Thus, "So long as men can breathe or eyes can see" (13), the lover, and the speaker's devotion, will continue in perpetuity. Thus, the sonnet lauds the triumph of love (and poetry) over death.
We can also note that, in Sonnet 18, a volta ("turn") in the argument occurs at line 9 ("But thy eternal summer shall not..."). Whereas the first portion of the sonnet is dominated by images of mortality and ravaging time, the latter half claims that all such realities can be overcome by love and poetry, which endlessly "give[s] life" (14) to the speaker's beloved. Voltas are a common element in Shakespearean sonnets, and contribute to the wit, vitality, and ease for which they are known and praised.
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