This document provides context and analysis of Shakespeare's famous Sonnet 18. It begins with the full text of the sonnet, which compares the subject's beauty to a summer's day. The document then explains that a sonnet has 14 lines that typically presents a problem resolved at the end. For Sonnet 18, the theme is that the subject's beauty will not fade with time and will live on eternally through the poem. Evidence for this is found in lines that say her beauty and summer will not fade and the poem will give her life as long as it is read.

1. Sonnet 18:
Shall I compare theeShall I compare thee
to a Summer’s Day?to a Summer’s Day?
By William Shakespeare

2. SONNET
• Poetry form that began in 13th
century. It means ‘little song’
(Italian sonnetto)
• Shakespeare wrote 154
sonnets!
• Sonnet 18 is his most famous
Shakespearean sonnets:
• A sonnet is composed of
fourteen lines.
• A sonnet contains a
“problem” in the first part of
the poem, which is typically
resolved in the final one.

3. Sonnet 18
• 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.

4. Paraphrase
Should I compare you to a day in summer?
You’re even prettier and warmer than a summer day.
The flower buds from May start to bloom, but summer will end too
soon.
The sun is sometimes too hot, even when it’s cloudy.
It’s a shame the season is changing because summer is so pretty.
Usually things change, but you will not; you will always be beautiful.
You are so pretty that death wont want you or brag about having you.
Even when death is approaching, as long as are remembered through
this poem, your beauty will never die.

5. Summary or
Reversal?
“So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this and this gives life to thee.”
Sonnet 18 couplet is a summary
– the entire poem discusses how her beauty will not fade.
– his opinion is consistent throughout the poem.
– the theme does not change and there is no ‘turn’ in any part
of the poem.

6. Theme
There are many
themes throughout this
sonnet but the main
idea is that her beauty
will not ever change.
Also, it portrays that
death will not kill her
beauty. Shakespeare
believes that through
poetry, her beauty will
be immortal.
EVIDENC
E
Line 9 “But thy eternal
summer shall not fade”
Line 13-14 “So long as
men can breathe or eyes
can see, So long lives
this and this gives life to
thee.”
Line 12 “When in
eternal lines to time
thou growest.”

7. Theme
There are many
themes throughout this
sonnet but the main
idea is that her beauty
will not ever change.
Also, it portrays that
death will not kill her
beauty. Shakespeare
believes that through
poetry, her beauty will
be immortal.
EVIDENC
E
Line 9 “But thy eternal
summer shall not fade”
Line 13-14 “So long as
men can breathe or eyes
can see, So long lives
this and this gives life to
thee.”
Line 12 “When in
eternal lines to time
thou growest.”