Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? By William Shakespeare: Summary, Analysis & Themes
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"Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?" is one of William Shakespeare's most famous sonnets, Sonnet 18. Written in the early 17th century, this poem is a profound exploration of beauty, love, and the passage of time. Shakespeare uses the sonnet form to celebrate the eternal qualities of the subject’s beauty, contrasting it with the fleeting nature of a summer's day. The poem is an exquisite example of how poetry can immortalize human beauty and affection.
Shall I compare thee to a summer’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 too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimmed;
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 t…