So how come Sonnet 18 is probably the most easily recognizable poem in the English language? Well, there’s the cynical answer: the poem lends itself really well to a poetry class, so every high schooler in the English-speaking world has to read it. What is Sonnet 18 About and Why Should I Care? What’s the nature of this love? Paternal? Brotherly? Affectionate? Sexual? You decide.
The last sonnets are thought to be written to Shakespeare’s mistress, whom scholars awesomely call the "Dark Lady." The middle poems, though, of which Sonnet 18 is the first, are generally thought to be love poems directed at a young man (check out Sonnet 20, where this is more obvious). The first seventeen sonnets are thought to be Shakespeare addressing a young man and telling him to go make some babies. Not much is known about the guy, but scholars have made tons of inferences based largely on these poems. Shakespeare's sonnets are considered a treasure trove for trying to understand his personal life. Shakespeare’s really into messing with how stories are told, and how different kinds of storytelling can affect the content of the stories. Why? First, it’s the perfect example of the sonnet form, so it’s great for teaching, but it’s also a great point of access for one of the major issues in all of Shakespeare: the weird relationship between an author, his subject matter, and his audience. All of them are sonnets, but Sonnet 18 is probably the most famous and widely read. So, over a couple of years, Shakespeare sat down and wrote (get this) 154 of these little poems. By that time, Shakespeare was already a hot shot, with his most famous plays behind him.
This is the eighteenth poem in William Shakespeare’s huge series of sonnets published in 1609.