Summary and Analysis of Sonnet 18 Shall I compare thee to a summer's day by William Shakespeare
"To His Love"
Summary and Analysis:-
The sonnet no. 18 “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day”
is a happi addition to the time, love theme of Shakespeare’s sonnets. It marks
his idealistic approach to love and adoration for his young friend. This sonnet
is addressed to a young friend, possibly the Earl of Southampton and remains a
specific specimen of the unique Shakespearean sonnets. Vibrant with the
characteristic vigour as well as technical artistry of Shakespeare’s sonnet
writing, the poem distinctly marks the singularity of his theme of masculine
love and devotion and faith in his poetry power.
The theme of the poem is the celebration of the loveliness
of the poet’s friend. A number of images
are drawn by the poet to idealize his beauty which according to the poet is
even superior than nature’s beauty.
In the first stanza the poet compares his friend to the
season of summer. But the addressee is more charming because of temperateness
and calms.
In the second stanza the friend is again compared to the
sun. But here also, he stands superior to the ‘eye of heaven’. The sun is
sometimes too hot and at other times it is overcast with clouds. But the friend’s
beauty is eternal and remains unaffected with nature’s diurnal course. The poet
firmly believes that his verse lines will conquer time and will be immortal. In
this was the addressee will also be immortalized.
To His Love
(Sonnet no. 18)
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 owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wanderest 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.
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 wanderest 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.
