Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day? is a sonnet by William Shakespeare

1. HOD,Eng.Dept.,
B.P.Arts,S.M.A.Sci.,K.K.C.Comm.College,Chalisgaon,Dist.Jalgaon(MS)
Mob.9850782686/ ravindraborse1@gmail.com

2. • William Shakespeare was born in 1564 in
Stratford-Upon-Avon to an alderman and
glover.
• He is widely regarded as the greatest
English writer of all time, and wrote 154
sonnets, two long narrative poems, and 38
plays, though recently another play has
been found and attributed to William
Shakespeare.

3. • Sonnet 18 or “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s
day” is one of the most famous of all 154 sonnets
written by William Shakespeare.
• First published in 1609, Sonnet 18 is a typical
English sonnet and one of the most famous lyric
poems in English.

4. • It is believed to be addressed to a young man
named W.H. whose identity remains a mystery.
• The quest for having a child in an attempt to
preserve the beauty of the young man which
Shakespeare argued to have in the previous
sonnets has been abandoned in this sonnet.
• Here the poet seems to have got a better idea in
preserving his friend’s beauty through his verse.
• Eternity is the general theme of the poem. The
tone of the sonnet is endearing and the poet is
trying to convince the readers of the eternal
beauty of his young friend.

5. • "Sonnet 18" is a sonnet written by English poet
and playwright William Shakespeare. The
poem was likely written in the 1590s, though it
was not published until 1609.
• Like many of Shakespeare's sonnets, the poem
wrestles with the nature of beauty and with the
capacity of poetry to represent that beauty.
Praising an anonymous person (usually
believed to be a young man), the poem tries
out a number of metaphors and similes

6. Complete poem -
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.

7. Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? –
Line by Line Explanation
Shall I compare Thee to a Summers day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
 William Shakespeare opens the poem with a question addressing his friend:
“Shall I compare thee to a Summer’s day?”
 The speaker is in confusion whether he should compare the young man’s beauty with
that of summer or not.
 And then he drops the idea as he believes that his friend is too perfect to be
compared with the summer. In the next line he emphasizes that his dear friend is
more lovely and temperate than the summer.
 Whereas the summer is extreme with its harsh days, his love’s beauty is gentler and
more restrained than the summer.

8. Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And Summer’s lease hath all too short a date:
The speaker has personified summer here.
He says that the violent summer winds are a threat to the
beautiful new flower buds that popped up in the early summer.
He argues that summer doesn’t last very long; it will end and is
only for a short lease.
The summer must abide by the agreements made to the
weather.

9. Stanza 1
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:
The poet wonders whether he should compare her to a summer’s day or not because
summer, in the poetry is considered something gay and happy. It signifies beauty, joy,
and hope.
On the other hand, his beloved is also very beautiful, and seeing her, the poet feels
blissful and happy. This is why he raises the rhetorical question of whether he should
compare his beloved with summer or not.
In the second line, he declares that his beloved is more lovely and temperate (pleasant
and gentle) whereas summer day, on the other hand, is often attacked by rough winds
(storms) which shake and even kill the darling (lovely and cute) buds (newly germinated
seeds in the flowers) of May (month of the year).
In the fourth line, the poet says that summer’s lease (period of occupation) has too short
a date (time). Note that the poet uses the word lease which means chartered and based
on agreement. Perhaps the poet is trying to say that the summer is not free and eternal.
It is a part of something and remains for a specified time and goes away quickly.

10. Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;
Further explaining, using personification of nature, the poet
says that sometimes the sun (the eye of heaven) is too hot and
sometimes too dimmed due to clouds.
So, the poet refers the sun as the “eye of heaven” and the golden
face of the sun as “his gold complexion”.
The poet is praising the beauty of his beloved friend indirectly
by showing us the shortcomings of the otherwise-beautiful
summer season.

11. And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimmed;
 Here the speaker says that everything changes with time.
 Even the most beautiful things fade and lose their charm. He says that all the
beautiful things (every fair) will eventually become less beautiful (declines) from the
previous state of beauty (from fair).
 This degradation happens by chance or by the rule of nature (nature’s changing
course) which remains unmodified (untrimmed).
 Here the word “untrimmed” may also be taken as untrimmed sails on a ship. It
explains that nature is a ship with sails which aren’t adjusted according to the course
of the wind for a better course.

12. Stanza 2
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;
In the fifth line, the poet says that sometimes the eye of heaven i.e. the sun shines too hot
i.e. the summer’s day is often very hot and unbearable which makes it undesirable.
Sometimes his (sun’s) gold complexion is dimmed. The poet uses personification in this
sentence as he describes the sun by the word his. For him, the sun is like a human. Note
that in the previous line, he calls the sun the eye of heaven which is again personification.
Heaven here means sky.
Coming back to the 6th line, the poet says that sometimes, the sunlight of the sun
becomes dimmed (during evening time) which also takes away its beauty. And even fair
from fair i.e. most beautiful day often declines i.e. either goes away (because of the night)
or is ruined either by chance (rain or storm or other natural calamities) or by untrimmed
i.e. unchanging nature’s changing course.
Untrimmed means which remain the same. Here it refers to the cycle of seasons which
remains the same. On the other hand, changing the course of nature means changing
seasons throughout the year. As a whole, the line means that the summer has to go away
because of the change of seasons which happens in an unchanged way.

13. But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
 Though the beauty of things declines with time, the beauty of youth i.e. his
beloved friend will not degrade.
 The beloved’s summer, i.e. his happy summer days, is eternal and will never
fade of its charm nor will the beauty of his friend (fair thou owest). ‘Owest’
or otherwise interpreted by many as ‘ownest’, conveys the idea that beauty is
something which is borrowed from nature and it must be paid back as the
time goes by.
 From this line the tone of the poem has changed. Through lines 1-8, the poet
has been pointing out the limitations of the summer and now he has started
praising his friend’s beauty directly.

14. Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st,
 Death will not be able to boast (brag) seeing the lover wandering under its
shade.
 The speaker personifies death here. He opines that although death has always
had an upper hand over life, the beauty of his friend will live in his poem
(eternal lines) through eternity (to time thou grow’st).
 The death will never be able to lay hands on his beloved as he is immortal.
Death is shown as someone who can ‘brag’ about the souls he has taken to the
darkness i.e. underworld (in his shade).

15. Stanza 3
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:
In the stanzas, we find that the poet brings into light the shortcomings of the summer
season. In this stanza, he tells how and why his beloved is more beautiful in the summer.
According to the poet, thy i.e. your (beloved’s) eternal summer will never fade away.
Eternal summer here means everlasting beauty. This statement seems to be contrary to
the popular belief that beauty fades away. I think the poet is not talking about the
physical beauty of his beloved. Rather he is referring to her inner beauty; the beauty of
her soul. It remains forever regardless of age.
In the next line, he says that she will not lose possession of the fair (beauty) that she
owns. It means that she will always own that beauty. Nobody can take away it from her
unlike the beauty of summer’s day which is chartered and taken away by nature.
Similarly, the death will not be able to make her beauty which she brags (boasts) about,
wander i.e. loose in its shade. In other words, the poet is saying that even death cannot
take away her beauty. It is eternal and will remain with her even as she grows (becomes
old) in eternal (never-ending) lines of time.

16. Couplet-
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
 These two last lines are couplets and here William Shakespeare makes a
prediction that this poem about his beloved’s beauty will be acclaimed
throughout the ages till men live on this earth.
 As long as life will go on, his poem will be read by men and women and
through his poem, his love will also live.
 In the final couplet, the poet says that as long as men can breathe or eyes can
see i.e. the humans are on earth, her beauty will live and this beauty will give
her life to her (after her death). In these two lines, he is either referring to
the inner beauty which is remembered by the future generations or he may
be referring to his poet who will make his beloved alive forever.

17. Figures of speech
• SIMILE compares two different elements or ideas and allow them to remain
distinct in spite of their similarities.
Ex: “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”
• HYPERBOLE: the use of exaggeration as a rethorical device.
Ex: “Shall I compare the to a summer’s day?”
• ASSONANCE is the repetition of vowel sounds.
Ex: “So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.”

18. Figures of speech
• METAPHOR: the use of a word or phrase to refer to something that
isn’t, creating a direct similarity between the word or phrase used and
the thing described.
Ex: “The eye of heaven” is used to referring to the SUN.
• ALLITERATION: using several words that begin with the same letter.
Ex: "Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date."

19. Figures of speech
• PERSONIFICATION: the attribution of human qualities to objects
“his gold complexion dimmed” where HIS is used to referring to the
SUN
• REPETITION: the use of words repeatedly to reinforce an image, idea
or to convey a message
Ex: Note the repetition of certain words through the sonnet: summer,
fair, so long, thou.

20. Thoughts of a literary immortality through the poets verse inspire this sonnet. Eternal
lines of verse will conquer Death and Time.
The beauty of the friend far exceeds the beauty of Nature. As long as man will read
his verse, they will remember the beauty of the friend, though his body is reduced to
dust.
Themes-
1. Love:
The love expressed in this poem is simply, yet movingly expressed. The language is
quite straightforward and each line is quite self-contained. This can be seen in the
number of punctuation marks: most lines end with one.
2. The passing of time / fleeting nature of beauty:
This poem is about the transience of life and of beauty. As long as both are linked to
physical beings, they will pass away. However, if they are captured in poetry, they can
live forever.

21. • The sonnet is rich in imagery.
The majority of the images have been drawn from the field of nature.
• Of these the most prominent are:
• a summer’s day,
• rough winds,
• the darling buds of May,
• summer’s lease,
• the eye of heaven,
• every fair (= beautiful thing or person),
• shines, declines, dimmed, untrimmed, eternal summer, shade and eternal lines.

22. Rhyme Scheme
The poem deserves attention as a sonnet (14 lines).
It maintains the Shakespearean rhyme-scheme (i.e. three
quatrains (abab; eded; efe) and a couplet (88) but is
Petrarchan in its thought-division (the poem being
clearly divisible into two parts: the octave and the sestet).

23. Meter
• The meter is IAMBIC PENTAMETER which means 5 iambic feet : ten
syllable lines in which even-numbered syllables are naturally accented
• A IAMB is a metrical foot consisting of an unaccented syllable
followed by an accented syllable.
ex: Shall I com PARE thee TO a SUM mer’s DAY?
• This beat is used as it replicates the rhythm of that human heart and
is a popular metre for love poetry.

24. Final observations
In William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18, one gets the feeling he is
describing a love that goes beyond the temporal realm of time
and seasons.
• LINES ONE AND TWO start with a question which the rest of
the sonnet answers.
• LINES THREE THROUGH EIGHT point out a number of
negative characteristics of summer.
• LINES NINE THROUGH FOURTEEN offer a view of the lover's
many contrasts with nature.