Shakespeare Sonnet #18

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. 

By William Shakespeare

Analyzation

This poem is about the author comparing his partner to a summer's day. He compares them to the beauty of summer. He explains how whereas summer comes to an end every year his love for his partner is eternal. The whole poem is a metaphor due to these comparisons. Love is the general theme of the poem. It is a sonnet as well as a conceit poem. There are three quatrains and a couplet. The rhyme scheme is ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. Alliteration is used on line seven "fair from fair". An allusion is used when heaven is mentioned in line five. An assonance is used on line ten "Nor lose possession".