Love as Obsession Shakespeare’s sonnet number 18, “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” and sonnet number 147, “My love is as a fever, longing still” are both manifestations of the same underlying emotion, which is obsession. They both show the necessity of love for the writer’s well-being. These sonnets show the extreme range of emotion, from good to bad, that love can encompass. The sonnets show the power of his emotion both …showed first 75 words of 634 total…

…showed last 75 words of 634 total…pedestal of sorts. In neither case is he equal to the object of his love. He is, however, looking to love to shelter and define him, whether it be in soothing sunshine or a feverish fury. He is encompassed and totally soaked with subjective rendering of his objective desire. There is a weakness and folly in all excessive and misplaced affection which is not redeemed by the touches of nobler sentiments in these sonnets (Hallam, 1837).