Sonnet 18: Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
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 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 wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
So let's start with that synopsis of Sonnet 18, which begins with that casually posed query that almost seems like a challenge or a dare: "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?"
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:
Shakespeare questions whether he should compare the sonnet's addressee, who is likely the same young man or "Fair Youth," to whom the other early sonnets are likewise addressed. He continues by saying that the young man is more charming, compassionate, and consistently consistent. After all, the adored season's blooms are frequently shook by blustery winds in May, which in Shakespeare's day was believed to be a legitimate element of summer, supporting the Bard's claim that summer is less "temperate" than the young man.
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:
Shakespeare continues to discuss how the young man is superior to a summer day in lines 5-8: sometimes the sun (also known as "the eye of heaven") beams too brightly (i.e., it is simply too hot, unbearably hot), and other times the sun is "dimmed" or obscured by clouds. And even the summer occasionally deteriorates a little from its peak, either randomly or as a result of nature's march (the word "fair" in the phrase "every fair" is used as a noun). (which changes and in time ages every living thing).
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st
Shakespeare continues the theme of "Youth vs. summer" in lines 9–12 by asserting that the young man's "eternal summer," or prime, will not end and that his "eternal summer" will not lose its hold on the beauty he possesses ('ow'st'). Not when the youth grows, not towards death (like a growing or lengthening shadow), but towards immortality, thanks to the "eternal lines" of Shakespeare's verse that will ensure that he will live forever, will Death, the Grim Reaper, be able to boast that the young man walks in the shadow of death.
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
Shakespeare says in his final couplet that the poem "this" will go on as long as people read poetry and exist as a race, and that by doing so, it will continue to "give life" to the young man by preserving his memory.