Sonnet no. 18| Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?| William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets, of which 1–126 was about a young man and the rest are about a dark lady.

So, without a doubt in the sonnet, no 18 Shakespeare addressed his friend, a young man, and compared his beauty with nature. It is said that Shakespeare has written this poem dedicated to his friend, Mr. W. H.

Theme

The theme of the sonnet is most likely of love and beauty. But in another context, it can also be read as a eulogy. So it can have both a love and death theme.

Summary

In the first quatrain of the sonnet, the poet asked his beloved friend that if he should compare him to a summer’s day.

But, in the very next line poet answered that question himself by saying that, his young friend is more lovely and gentle than summer.

As harsh winds in summer can destroy the new blown buds of a tree. But his friend is more moderate, more gentle. And the beauty of summer is short-lasting compared to the eternal beauty of his friend.

“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;”

In the second quatrain, the poet said compared the short spanning beauty of summer with the eternal beauty of his friend. Sometimes the Sun is too bright for our comfort in summer.

Summer’s Day|

Pixabay

And often its golden complexion gets overshadowed by dark clouds. And every beautiful thing in this whole world diminishes by chance or by the course of nature.

“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 the eternal beauty of his young friend will never diminish, will never be faded. Even death will not be able to decrease its eternal shine under its shadow. As his beauty will be eternalized by these lines in the heart of the world.

“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:”

At last in the couplet, the poet said that, as long as there will be life on this earth, his eternal beauty will live through this verse.

“So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,

So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.”