Choose a sonnet by Shakespeare and do a close reading. First, summarize the theme of the sonnet. Then, discuss the formal aspects of the sonnet and how the rules of sonnet structure apply to the one you chose. Describe how the poet divides the sonnet for thematic purposes.

Sonnet 18

Choose a sonnet by Shakespeare and do a close reading. First, summarize the theme of the sonnet. Then, discuss the formal aspects of the sonnet and how the rules of sonnet structure apply to the one you chose. Describe how the poet divides the sonnet for thematic purposes.

Then, give a line-by-line analysis of the poem, paying close attention, where necessary, to the meaning, or a variety of possible meanings, of individual words.