Analyzing Sonnet 18

Analyzing Sonnet 18

Summer is a warm, delightful time of the year often associated with rest and recreation. Shakespearecompares his love to a summer's day in Sonnet 18. We will first interpret this sonnet line by line:

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

(Right away, Shakespeare presents his metaphor. He is comparing his love to a summer's day.)

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

(Shakespeare believes his love is more desirable and has a more even temper than summer.)

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

(Before summer, strong winds knock buds off of the flowering trees.)

And summer's lease hath all too short a date:

(Summer goes by too quickly.)

Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines,

(Sometimes summer days are just too hot!)

And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;

(Some summer days are cloudy.)

And every fair from fair sometime declines,

(Everything beautiful in nature eventually fades away.)

By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;

(The changes happen either by accident or through nature's natural cycles.)

But thy eternal summer shall not fade

(But you, my love, have the best characteristics of summer, and these will never go away.)

Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;

(Your beauty will never decline.)

Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,

(You will never look as if you are on the brink of death.)

When in eternal lines to time thou growest:

(Because I've written these lines about you, even over time . . .)

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,

(As long as there are humans alive on this planet . . .)

So long lives this and this gives life to thee.

(Your life and beauty will live on through this sonnet.)

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

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 owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
   So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
   So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. 

Summary

The speaker opens the poem with a question addressed to the beloved: “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” The next eleven lines are devoted to such a comparison. In line 2, the speaker stipulates what mainly differentiates the young man from the summer’s day: he is “more lovely and more temperate.” Summer’s days tend toward extremes: they are shaken by “rough winds”; in them, the sun (“the eye of heaven”) often shines “too hot,” or too dim. And summer is fleeting: its date is too short, and it leads to the withering of autumn, as “every fair from fair sometime declines.” The final quatrain of the sonnet tells how the beloved differs from the summer in that respect: his beauty will last forever (“Thy eternal summer shall not fade...”) and never die. In the couplet, the speaker explains how the beloved’s beauty will accomplish this feat, and not perish because it is preserved in the poem, which will last forever; it will live “as long as men can breathe or eyes can see.”