In William Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 and Edmund Spenser's Sonnet 75, the poets compare and contrast the ideas of mortality and immortality. Mortality is defined as the condition of being sure to die sometime. Immortality is defined as life without death as in living forever. In the following paragraphs I will discuss the sonnets and their meanings in full detail as they portray mortality and immortality.

The authors use mortality in various ways. Shakespeare uses mortality as Spenser uses it. Both authors define it as being able to or going to die. Even though immortality truly has one meaning, it can be portrayed as something else in many different ways. Shakespeare starts off comparing mortality to a summer's day. After comparing and contrasting in lines 13 and 14, he says, "So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see. So long lives this; and this gives life to thee." Instead of trying...