“Sonnet 18” 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.
About the poem “Sonnet 18” by William Shakespeare
“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”
Few poems in the English language are as instantly recognizable as William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18. Opening with the iconic line, “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”, this timeless love poem is part of Shakespeare’s 154-sonnet sequence, most of which are believed to have been written in the 1590s.
Summary of Sonnet 18
In this 14-line sonnet, Shakespeare praises the beloved’s beauty, comparing it favorably to a summer’s day. While summer may be lovely, it is fleeting—subject to rough winds, scorching heat, and an eventual decline into autumn. The speaker argues that the beloved’s beauty is more constant, more temperate, and immune to the decay that time brings to all things.
The poem concludes with the bold claim that the beloved will achieve immortality through the enduring power of verse:
“So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.”
Analysis of Sonnet 18
A Celebration of Eternal Beauty Through Poetry
Shakespeare’s use of the sonnet form—a tightly structured 14-line poem with a rhyme scheme of ABAB CDCD EFEF GG—emphasizes both technical mastery and emotional intimacy. At its core, Sonnet 18 is a love poem, but it is also a declaration of art’s ability to preserve memory and beauty forever.
Where nature is cyclical and bound by time, poetry resists decay. The speaker elevates the beloved’s loveliness to something divine, untouchable, and timeless—not by denying mortality, but by using language to triumph over it.
Love Beyond the Season
Unlike the sometimes superficial comparisons in other love poetry of the time, Shakespeare subverts expectations. Rather than praising the beloved as “just like” a summer’s day, the speaker moves beyond that metaphor, arguing that the beloved surpasses summer. Summer fades—but the beloved’s “eternal summer shall not fade.” This conceptual shift turns what begins as a romantic gesture into a deeper reflection on permanence, art, and devotion.
Universal Emotion, Lasting Impact
Sonnet 18 remains one of Shakespeare’s most celebrated works because it speaks to something universal: the human desire to preserve what we love, to fight back against the tide of time, and to express deep emotion with precision and beauty. Its influence can be felt across centuries of poetry, including right here in Arizona’s contemporary love poems.
Explore More Love Poetry on AZPoetry.com
Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 reminds us of the emotional power that love poems can carry—then and now. At AZPoetry.com, you’ll find a growing collection of love poems written by poets from across Arizona. Whether you’re looking for romance, heartbreak, longing, or joy, we invite you to discover how local voices are keeping the tradition of love poetry alive in the desert.
