William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
Sonnet XVIII: Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day?
1Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
2Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
3Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
4And summer's lease hath all too short a date.
5Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
6And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
7And every fair from fair sometime declines,
8By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;
9But thy eternal summer shall not fade
10Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;
11Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
12When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st:
13So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
14So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
Notes
4] date: duration, period.
7] fair: beauty.
8] untrimm'd: stripped of its ornament.
10] ow'st: "own'st," possessest.
Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.
Original text: William Shakespeare, Shake-speares sonnets (London: G. Eld for T. T., 1609). STC 22353. Facs. edn.: London: J. Cape, 1925. PR 2750 B48 1609b ROBA.
First publication date:
1609
RPO poem editor: F. D. Hoeniger
RP edition: 3RP 1.138.
Recent editing: 2:2002/3/28
Form: sonnet
Rhyme: ababcdcdefefgg
Other poems by William Shakespeare
