William Shakespeare is one of the most prominent English poets ever to live. In the year 1609, Shakespeare published a collection consisting of 154 sonnets, including "Sonnet 18."
The structure of Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 18” coincides with the structure of the English or Shakespearean sonnet. The Shakespearean sonnet has fourteen lines in total, forming three quatrains and a closing rhyming couplet of two lines. In the first twelve lines, the poet wonders if it is possible to compare the young man to a summer day before claiming that he will live through the poem. In the couplet, the poet remarks that the young man surely will live on, as long as someone continues to read the poem. The couplet starts with "So" to emphasize that the two last lines in the poem confirm the thoughts presented in lines 1-12.
The sonnet follows the very specific Shakespearean rhyme scheme: ABAB CDCD EFEF GG, an example of the rhyme scheme can be seen in the last lines of the poem:
“But thy eternal summer shall not fade, (E)
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest, (F)
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade, (E)
When in eternal lines to time thou growest. (F)
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