Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? by William Shakespeare

Sonnet 18 – William Shakespeare

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1 Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? 1 Should I compare you to a summer’s day? 2 Thou art more lovely and more temperate: 2 You are more lovely and more moderate: 3 Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, 3 Rough winds shake the precious buds of May, 4 And summer’s lease hath all too short a date; 4 And summer’s time is far too short; 5 Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, 5 Sometimes the sun shines too hot, 6 And often is his gold complexion dimm’d; 6 And often his golden face is dimmed; 7 And every fair from fair sometime declines, 7 And every beautiful thing eventually fades, 8 By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d; 8 By chance or by nature’s changing course; 9 But thy eternal summer shall not fade, 9 But your eternal summer will never fade, 10 Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st; 10 Nor will you lose the beauty you own; 11 Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade, 11 Nor will Death claim you wander in his shadow, 12 When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st: 12 When you grow in these eternal lines of poetry: 13 So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, 13 As long as men can breathe or eyes can see, 14 So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. 14 This poem will live, and it gives life to you.

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