In Sonnet 18, Shakespeare compares his friend's beauty to a summer's day. While summer days are sometimes too hot or dimmed by clouds, his friend's beauty will not fade with time. The poet asserts that his friend's beauty will live on eternally through the sonnet itself, so long as people can read or see.

1. Sonnet 18: Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
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 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.
COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS:
What is the mood and tone of Shakespeare's Sonnet 18?
How does Shakespeare compare his friend's beauty with the summer's day in Sonnet 18?
What is the theme of Shakespeare's Sonnet 18?
Please explain the last two lines of Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare.
Why do you think Shakespeare begins Sonnet 18 with a question?
What does "sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines" from Sonnet 18 mean?

2. How does the poet express his adoration to his muse in "Sonnet 18"?
What is the moral lesson of Shakespeare's Sonnet 18?
In lines 3–4 of Shakespeare's Sonnet 18, what does the speaker reveal about summer?
Why does Shakespeare start Sonnet 18 with a question?
What is the main purpose of Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare?
How does Shakespeare glorify/immortalize his friend in "Sonnet 18"?