SONNET 18

Shall I compare thee a to sumeer’s day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate.

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of may,

And summer’s lease hath all too short a date:

Sometime to hot the eye of heaven shines,

And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;

And every fair from fair sometime declines,

By chance, or nature’s changing course,untrimm’d;

But thy eternal summer shall not fade

Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;

Nor shall death brag thou wand’rest in his shade,

When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st.

So long as men can breathe, or eye can see

So long lives this, and this given life to thee.

FIRST QUATRAIN (Line 1-4)

The poet states the main idea that the beloved’s beauty is more lovely and lasts
longer than the beauty of a summer’s day

He gives reasons for saying so:

1) The mild summer’s day can suddenly turn cold and windy,
2) The sight of new life can be easily destroyed

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

The poet wonders if he should compare his beloved (thee) to a summers day

Thou art more lovely and more temperate

The poet thinks the beloved is more beautiful than a summer’s day and her
mood is less likely to change

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May

Even on a summer’s day a strong wind may blow; this wind can be violent and
can shake and destroy the lovely, delicate buds of May. May falls at the end of
spring when flowers are starting to bloom and there are lots of buts)
And summer’s lease hath all no short a date

Summer lasts for only a short time – too short in the poet’s opinion. It is as if
summer has rented or leased a period of time. At the end of the leased, summer
goes away

SECOND QUATRAIN (Line 5-6)

The poet further explains that the beauty of summer is usually marred (spoilt by
time and change). Everything declines and fades.

Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines

”Eye of heaven” refers to the sun. Sometimes the sun shines too brightly and
gets too hot

And often is his gold complexion dimm’d

This refers to the sun. The poet of the sun as a person. The sun therefore has a
complexion, like a person. When clouds block the sun, it no longer shines
brightly. As a result, the sun’s complexion is often dimmed

THIRD QUATRAIN (Line 9-12)

But the beauty of the beloved will last forever. Death cannot claim it as it
will live on in poetry.

But thy eternal summer shall not fade Nor lose possession of that
fair thou aw’st;

The poet thinks of the beloved’s beauty as an everlasting (eternal)

summer that will not give way to autumn or winter. This beauty will never
be taken from the beloved like some possession that is lost.

Nor shall Death thou wand’rest in his shade, When in eternal lines
to time thou grow’st.

This beloved will die one day. But his/her beauty will live on in this poem

The poet thinks of death as a person and therefore spells the world with a
capital “D”. When someone dies, it is as if he/she has walked into death’s
shade, a dark place where Death rules. However, because the beloved’s
beauty will continue to exist in the poem, not even Death can boast that
he is able to take this beauty away.

COUPLET (Line 13-14)

The poet concludes that his poem will live on so long as human life exist.
In this way the beauty of the one he loves, expressed in his poem, will
never die. In line 14, this refers to the poem

ANALYSING THE POEM

SETTING

The poem is set in England where there are four seasons:

Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter.

The poet thinks that his beloved (the person he loves) is lovelier than a
summer’s day.

THEME

Beauty, immortalized in poetry, continues to live while everything else

dies within time.

RELATED THEMES:

1. All living things must die

2. Youth can be easily destroyed
3. Beauty will fade with time
4. Some things can be on forever

MORAL VALUES

1. Love can conquer time

2. What is written will last forever