(26 April 1564 - 23 April 1616 / Warwickshire)

poet William Shakespeare
#3 on top 500 poets
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Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? (Sonnet 18)

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 thou grow'st.
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Submitted: Monday, January 20, 2003


Read poems about / on: summer, nature, heaven, death, time, life, change, lost, wind

Comments about this poem (Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? (Sonnet 18) by William Shakespeare )

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  • Kerri Roberts (10/27/2012 5:19:00 PM)

    i love william shakespeare

    7 person liked.
    		4 person did not like.
  • Francisca Darko (10/27/2012 5:18:00 PM)

    My favourite shakespeare poem. I memorised this when I was 8 and I still remember every line: D A great inspiration!

    7 person liked.
    		4 person did not like.
  • Kevin Straw (10/27/2012 11:04:00 AM)

    There are two near-blasphemous claims in this sonnet. The first is that the Youth’s beauty is equal to that of the glorified body that Catholics believe all will possess after death, and the second is that the Poet’s verse can sustain that heavenly state, even defeating death itself.

    But in the final couplet Shakespeare comes to his senses to say that this paradisal state will last only “So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see…”.

    This is not the only time in The Sonnets that Shakespeare flirts with blasphemous thoughts in his attempts to praise the Youth.

    7 person liked.
    		16 person did not like.
  • Akanksha Bhatt (10/27/2012 10:14:00 AM)

    a very nice sonnet by one of my idols!

    9 person liked.
    		7 person did not like.
  • Paul Brookes (10/27/2012 3:11:00 AM)

    A master class on how to write a sonnet Go Shakespear.

    8 person liked.
    		7 person did not like.
  • Komagal Rajamohan (3/26/2012 11:56:00 AM)

    best of all the sonnets he have written........

    10 person liked.
    		12 person did not like.
  • Kadombini Paromita (2/26/2012 8:48:00 PM)

    That's the best sonnet of William Shakespeare that I have ever read.

    18 person liked.
    		10 person did not like.
  • Kasem Almusawi (12/14/2011 1:30:00 PM)

    I would like to know the poetic devices used in sonnet 18.

    12 person liked.
    		8 person did not like.
  • Joshwin Artedes (Pseud) (6/4/2010 11:47:00 AM)

    if there is one poem i will choose to be my favorite, this is the poem i'll choose. w/o a doubt.

    11 person liked.
    		8 person did not like.
  • Grabriel Santana (5/14/2010 6:34:00 PM)

    i love this poem for he writes his poems from the inside

    12 person liked.
    		7 person did not like.
Read all 32 comments »

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