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SONNET: 18, by         Recitation     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Last Line: So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
Variant Title(s): "shall I Compare Thee To A Summer's Day?"";to His Love;
Subject(s): Admiration; Art & Artists; Beauty; Change; Flowers; Immortality; Love; Roses; Summer; Transience; Impermanence


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 dimmed:
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course,
untrimmed.
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.





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