Different Types of Love Portrayed in Shakespeare’s Sonnets

Different types of love are revealed in Shakespeare’s sonnets. Love as we know takes many forms and Shakespeare’s sonnets show both the physical and the emotional sides of love.

Sonnet 18, “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day”, is written to a young man. The sonnet discusses the relationship between the Young Man and summer. The poet says that the Young Man’s beauty does not even compare to that of summer. The Young Man’s beauty will last forever as opposed to summer which will eventually end because, “every fair from fair sometime declines”. The poet is clearly besotted with this Young Man. From the beginning one can see the attraction to his physical beauty, but it is only at the end of the poem that one can see the love is more than just physical.

In comparison, the poet writes sonnet 130 to the Dark L...