It is almost ironic that we are not given a description of the lover in particular. Here, in this particular sonnet, the feeling of summer is evoked through references to the ‘ darling buds‘ of May, and through the description of the sun as golden-complexioned. William Shakespeare’s sonnets thrive on simplicity of imagery, at a polar opposite to his plays, whose imagery can sometimes be packed with meaning. In terms of imagery, there is not much that one can say about it. Thus, through the words, his beloved’s beauty will also live on. Though they might die and be lost to time, the poem will survive, will be spoken of, will live on when they do not. The immortality of love and beauty through poetry provides the speaker with his beloved’s eternal summer.

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, / So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. Instead, he attributes that quality to his beloved, whose beauty will never fade, even when ‘ death brag thou waander’stin his shade‘, as he will immortalize his lover’s beauty in his verse.

Thus, to compare his lover to a summer’s day, the speaker considers their beloved to be tantamount to a rebirth, and even better than summer itself.Īs summer is occasionally short, too hot, and rough, summer is, in fact, not the height of beauty for this particular speaker.

Summer has always been seen as the respite from the long, bitter winter, a growing period where the earth flourishes itself with flowers and with animals once more. The poem opens with the speaker putting forward a simple question: can he compare his lover to a summer’s day? Historically, the theme of summertime has always been used to evoke a certain amount of beauty, particularly in poetry. So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st, Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade, Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st, Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,Īnd every fair from fair sometime declines,īy chance, or nature’s changing course untrimmed: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,Īnd summer’s lease hath all too short a date: The beloved’s beauty can coexist with summer, and indeed be more pleasant, but it is not a replacement for it. Although in Sonnet 130, Shakespeare is mocking the over-flowery language, in Sonnet 18, Shakespeare’s simplicity of imagery shows that that is not the case. This also riffs – as Sonnet 130 does – on the romantic poetry of the age, the attempt to compare a beloved to something greater than them. While summer is short and occasionally too hot, his beloved has a beauty that is everlasting, and that will never be uncomfortable to gaze upon. Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day? attempts to justify the speaker’s beloved’s beauty by comparing it to a summer’s day, and comes to the conclusion that his beloved is better after listing some of the summer’s negative qualities.

Sonnet 18 by william shakespeare