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Sonnet 18

Sonnet 18. Text. 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 ;

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Sonnet 18

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  1. Sonnet 18

  2. Text 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 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.

  3. Form: Shakespearean sonnet • Theme: You can immortalize things with writing and other works of art. • So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, • So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

  4. Analysis • Figurative language • Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? • The speaker then subverts this comparison by listing negative things about summer: it is too short and too hot 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; • Because of these things “Thou art more lovely and more temperate”, and the beloved has a summer that will last forever. • Death is a proud personality who brags. • Common in literature • Language of borrowing and lending • “summer’s lease” • “Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;” • Ow’st could be interpreted as either own or owe. This suggests that beauty is something borrowed that eventually has to be given back.

  5. Analysis • There is also this imagery of a growing plant. • When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st • The shift comes at the ninth line: • But thy eternal summer shall not fade, which contrasts the eternal summer with the physical, temporary summer.

  6. A trivia fact • Many scholars think this sonnet was addressed to a male.

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