Final answer:
The Shakespearean sonnet form of 'Sonnet 18' creates rhythm and structure, influencing the poem's meaning and style. The structured quatrains lead to a climactic couplet, with a volta emphasizing the poem’s message about the eternal nature of beauty. This form and stylistic choice reflect the poem's contemplation of beauty and timelessness.
Step-by-step explanation:
The form of Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 greatly impacts its meaning and style. The Shakespearean sonnet form, consisting of three quatrains followed by a rhyming couplet in iambic pentameter with the rhyme scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF GG, introduces rhythm and structure to the poem. This form inherently provides a clear path for the unfolding of the poem's themes. Each quatrain contemplates a different aspect of the subject's enduring beauty, building upon the last until the couplet provides a final, climactic point - the idea that the poem itself will immortalize the subject's beauty.
Moreover, the volta, or the turn in thought, commonly found in sonnets, occurs within Sonnet 18 as the poem shifts from considering how to compare the subject to a summer's day to proclaiming the eternal nature of the subject's beauty preserved in the poem. This transition from the octet to the sestet, provides a dramatic contrast in ideas that enriches the poem’s overall meaning.
The poem's strict form also influences style by dictating a measured and reflective pace, allowing the reader to ponder the beauty and love described, while appreciating the skillful use of language within the form's constraints. This enhances the poem's sense of elegance and timelessness, which mirrors the immortalization of beauty that Shakespeare writes about.