Hello friends today we are discuss this question, the question is -What does summer stand for in Sonnet 18 ? What prompts the poet to remark ‘And every fair from fair sometime declines,’?
In Sonnet 18, summer stands for an entity which like all other things on earth has its merits and demerits and is fated to die with the passing of time.
In the line mentioned above, the poet elaborates his philosophy that every beautiful thing fades away by Nature’s inevitable changes. The urge to mention that as long as human beings exist, his friend would remain immortal in his verse, prompts the poet to make the remark. The latent desire to demonstrate his genius compels Shakespeare to bring in the concept of eternity in his sonnet. The thought that poetry is not subjected to decay and will live longer than its creator, encourages the poet to come up with the line quoted above.