Immortality through the lines of Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 and Spenser's Sonnet 75 Craving fame, celebrity and importance, people have craved for centuries l the unattainable goal of immortality. Poets also expressed in verse the desire that their lovers remain as they are for eternity, in efforts of praise. Although Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 and Spenser's Sonnet 75 from Amoretti both offer the lovers this immortality through verse, only Spenser pairs this immortality with respect and cooperation, while Shakespeare promises immortality to the subject of the sonnet with unusual compliments and certainty that he will live a long time. while the sonnet continues to be read. Spenser argues with his lover, treating her as his equal, and leaves her opinion open to interpretation as an example of indirect poetry. Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 begins with the "whim of an inventive mind," (Vendler, 120) a rhetorical question asking whether he should compare the subject of the sonnet to a summer's day. After readers see that Shakespeare does not ask us to compare it to anything else, we realize that this proposed comparison to a summer's day is, in his mind, perfection (Vendler, 120). However, to truly praise the woman, he must demonstrate that she is “lovelier and more temperate” by deprecating the metaphor (Vendler, 121). Although the metaphor seems sweet at first, the implicit answer is “no” and Shakespeare goes on to explain why it is not even worthy of the best possible metaphor (Colie, 36). His imagery of "strong winds" and the sun "too hot" along with the personification of summer ("The summer lease hath too short a date") support Shakespeare's belief that summer is too short and unpredictable to be compared... . half of the card ......87. 36-37.Felperin, Howard. “Toward a Poststructuralist Practice: Sonnets.” Modern critical interpretations in C: Shakespeare's sonnets. Ed. Harold Bloom. 1st ed. N New York: Chelsea House, 1987. 103-131. Oram, William Allan. Edmund Spenser. Ed. Arthur Kinney. New York: Twayne, 1 1997.Ray, Robert H. "Shakespeare's Sonnet 18." The explainer. Autumn 1994: 10-11.Shakespeare, William. "Sonnet 18." The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. E. MH Abrams. 6th ed. New York: Norton, 1996. 471. “Sonnet 75: Criticism.” EXPLORING Poetry. CD-ROM. Gale, 1997. “Sonnet 75: Overview.” EXPLORING Poetry. CD-ROM. Gale, 1997.Spenser, Edmund. "Sonnet 75." The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. MH Abrams. 6th ed. New York: Norton, 1996. 415.Vendler, Helen. The art of Shakespeare's sonnets. Cambridge: Harvard UP: 1998.