How to Revise Sonnet 18 — OCR GCSE English Literature
Sonnet 18 is a topic in the OCR GCSE English Literature specification. This guide covers learning objectives, examiner tips, common mistakes, and key terminology to help you revise effectively.
Examiner Tips for Sonnet 18
- Always link analysis to the overall theme of immortality and the power of poetry.
- Use precise literary terminology when discussing form (e.g., Shakespearean sonnet, iambic pentameter, rhyming couplet).
- Explore the significance of the final couplet's claim that the poem will give 'life' to the beloved, referencing lines such as 'So long as men can breathe or eyes can see'.
- Consider the Elizabethan context of courtly love and poetic competition, and how Shakespeare subverts traditional Petrarchan ideals.
Common Mistakes in Sonnet 18
- Assuming 'darling buds of May' refers to actual flowers without exploring its metaphorical resonance for youthful beauty.
- Misidentifying the volta's location (typically line 9 or 13) or failing to see how it shifts the argument from criticism of summer to the beloved's eternal summer.
- Interpreting the poem solely as a literal love poem without recognizing its metapoetic dimension about art's durability.
- Confusing the speaker's argument with simple flattery rather than a meditation on the transience of physical beauty.
Key Marking Points
- Award credit for accurately identifying the metaphor of the 'summer's day' and explaining its limitations.
- Recognition of the personification of Death and nature in lines 11-12.
- Understanding of how the couplet functions as a self-referential turn that asserts the poem's power.
- Effective use of subject terminology (e.g., iambic pentameter, metaphor, volta) to analyse the sonnet.
- Explanation of how the progression from octave to sestet mirrors the argument's development.