SONNET 18

PARAPHRASE

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

Shall I compare you to a summer's day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

You are more lovely and more constant:

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, Rough winds shake the beloved buds of May
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:

And summer is far too short:

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,

At times the sun is too hot,

And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;

And every fair from fair sometime declines,

Or often goes behind the clouds;

And everything beautiful sometime will lose its beauty,

By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimm'd;

course.

By misfortune or by nature's planned out

But thy eternal summer shall not fade But your youth shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;

Nor will you lose the beauty that you possess;

Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,

When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st;

Because in my eternal verse you will live forever.

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,

So long lives this and this gives life to thee.

Nor will death claim you for his own,

So long as there are people on this earth,

So long will this poem live on, making you immortal.

1. Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

This is taken usually to mean 'What if I were to compare thee etc?' The stock comparisons of the loved
one to all the beauteous things in nature hover in the background throughout. One also remembers
Wordsworth's lines:
We'll talk of sunshine and of song,
And summer days when we were young,
Sweet childish days which were as long
As twenty days are now.
Such reminiscences are indeed anachronistic, but with the recurrence of words such as 'summer', 'days',
'song', 'sweet', it is not difficult to see the permeating influence of the Sonnets on Wordsworth's verse.
2. Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

The youth's beauty is more perfect than the beauty of a summer day. more temperate - more gentle,
more restrained, whereas the summer's day might have violent excesses in store, such as are about to
be described.
3. Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
May was a summer month in Shakespeare's time, because the calendar in use lagged behind the true
sidereal calendar by at least a fortnight.
darling buds of May - the beautiful, much loved buds of the early summer; favourite flowers.
4. And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Legal terminology. The summer holds a lease on part of the year, but the lease is too short, and has an
early termination (date).
5. Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
Sometime = on occasion, sometimes;
the eye of heaven = the sun.
6. And often is his gold complexion dimmed,
his gold complexion = his (the sun's) golden face. It would be dimmed by clouds and on overcast days
generally.
7. And every fair from fair sometime declines,
All beautiful things (every fair) occasionally become inferior in comparison with their essential previous
state of beauty (from fair). They all decline from perfection.
8. By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed:
By chance accidents, or by the fluctuating tides of nature, which are not subject to control,nature's
changing course untrimmed.
untrimmed - this can refer to the ballast (trimming) on a ship which keeps it stable; or to a lack of
ornament and decoration. The greater difficulty however is to decide which noun this adjectival
participle should modify. Does it refer to nature, or chance, or every fair in the line above, or to the
effect of nature's changing course? KDJ adds a comma aftercourse, which probably has the effect of
directing the word towards all possible antecedents. She points out that nature's changing course could
refer to women's monthly courses, or menstruation, in which case every fair in the previous line would
refer to every fair woman, with the implication that the youth is free of this cyclical curse, and is
therefore more perfect.
9. But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Referring forwards to the eternity promised by the ever living poet in the next few lines, through his
verse.

10. Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,

Nor shall it (your eternal summer) lose its hold on that beauty which you so richly possess.ow'st =
ownest, possess.
By metonymy we understand 'nor shall you lose any of your beauty'.
11. Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
Several half echoes here. The biblical ones are probably 'Oh death where is thy sting? Or grave thy
victory?' implying that death normally boasts of his conquests over life. And Psalms 23.3.: 'Yea though I
walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil ' In classical literature the shades flitted
helplessly in the underworld like gibbering ghosts. Shakespeare would have been familiar with this
through Virgil's account of Aeneas' descent into the underworld in Aeneid Bk. VI.
12. When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st,
in eternal lines = in the undying lines of my verse. Perhaps with a reference to progeny, and lines of
descent, but it seems that the procreation theme has already been abandoned.
to time thou grow'st - you keep pace with time, you grow as time grows.
13. So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
For as long as humans live and breathe upon the earth, for as long as there are seeing eyes on the eart.
14. So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
That is how long these verses will live, celebrating you, and continually renewing your life. But one is left
with a slight residual feeling that perhaps the youth's beauty will last no longer than a summer's day,
despite the poet's proud boast.
Notes
temperate (1): i.e., evenly-tempered; not overcome by passion.
the eye of heaven (5): i.e., the sun.
every fair from fair sometime declines (7): i.e., the beauty (fair) of everything beautiful (fair) will fade
(declines). Compare to Sonnet 116: "rosy lips and cheeks/Within his bending sickle's compass come."

nature's changing course (8): i.e., the natural changes age brings.
that fair thou ow'st (10): i.e., that beauty you possess.
in eternal lines...growest (12): The poet is using a grafting metaphor in this line. Grafting is a technique
used to join parts from two plants with cords so that they grow as one. Thus the beloved becomes

immortal, grafted to time with the poet's cords (his "eternal lines"). For commentary on whether this
sonnet is really "one long exercise in self-glorification", please see below.
Sonnet 18 is the best known and most well-loved of all 154 sonnets. It is also one of the most
straightforward in language and intent. The stability of love and its power to immortalize the subject of
the poet's verse is the theme.
The poet starts the praise of his dear friend without ostentation, but he slowly builds the image of his
friend into that of a perfect being. His friend is first compared to summer in the octave, but, at the start
of the third quatrain (9), he is summer, and thus, he has metamorphosed into the standard by which
true beauty can and should be judged. The poet's only answer to such profound joy and beauty is to
ensure that his friend be forever in human memory, saved from the oblivion that accompanies death.
He achieves this through his verse, believing that, as history writes itself, his friend will become one with
time. The final couplet reaffirms the poet's hope that as long as there is breath in mankind, his poetry
too will live on, and ensure the immortality of his muse.
Interestingly, not everyone is willing to accept the role of Sonnet 18 as the ultimate English love poem.
As James Boyd-White puts it:
What kind of love does 'this' in fact give to 'thee'? We know nothing of the beloveds form or height or
hair or eyes or bearing, nothing of her character or mind, nothing of her at all, really. This 'love poem' is
actually written not in praise of the beloved, as it seems, but in praise of itself. Death shall not brag, says
the poet; the poet shall brag. This famous sonnet is on this view one long exercise in self-glorification,
not a love poem at all; surely not suitable for earnest recitation at a wedding or anniversary party, or in
a Valentine. (142)
Note that James Boyd-White refers to the beloved as "her", but it is almost universally accepted by
scholars that the poet's love interest is a young man in sonnets 1-126.
Sonnets 18-25 are often discussed as a group, as they all focus on the poet's affection for his friend.
Structure
This sonnet is an example of typical Shakespearean style, comprising three quatrains in iambic
pentameter ending in a heroic couplet, following a rhyming scheme of abab cdcd efef gg. It follows the
tradition of dividing the sonnet into two parts. In the octave, Time is shown as the enemy of the
transitory nature of beauty and there are references to different passages of time, day, May, date,
summer. After the volta, highlighted by But, the sestet introduces Time as the solution: the youths
beauty will be everlasting as long as the sonnet exists and the references are to the eternal and So
long as. The final couplet, although part of the sestet, could stand alone and provides a strong closing
point.
Technical devices

It is significant that there is only one enjambment every line except line 9 finishes with punctuation.
This is a poem of stated facts rather than rambling musings.
Repetition (more lovely and more temperate, every fair from fair) and anaphora (lines 6 and 7, lines
10 and 11, lines 13 and 14) are used heavily throughout the sonnet. These techniques are used for
emphasis, to accentuate the point being made. Contrasts are emphasised by antithesis, more
temperate./Rough winds and the last word of lines 5 and 6, opposing shines with dimmed.
Alliteration, a linking device, is lightly used which makes it more effective when it does appear, chance,
or natures changing course, used at the end of the octave. The next use is in the final line, long lives
this, and this gives life to thee where the double alliteration of the l and t force the line into
prominence.
The object of the sonnet
The poem begins with a rhetorical question to thee (commonly assumed to be a youth) (The Norton
Anthology, 2006) so it seems as though the poem is going to be about the young man. However, the
stressed I of the first line contrasts with the unstressed Thou of the second, foreshadowing the
theme of the poem; it is less a tribute to the youths beauty than a proclamation of the writers skill and
his assurance that his poem will be a future classic. This suggestion is furthered in the 12th line, in
eternal lines, referring to the lines of the poem. Shakespeare has broken the fourth wall by
acknowledging the poem and the existence of readers.
Use of Metaphor
Personification occurs throughout the poem in the form of Summer (summers lease), the Sun (his
gold complexion), Nature (natures changing course) and Death (shall death brag). Summer and
Death are personified to suggest a human relationship: Death is a rival for the poets love. The
summers lease is echoed in line 8 at thou owst, extending the metaphor further.
From the first line, Shakespeare invites a comparison with summer and this continues through to the
final couplet. Summer, generally presented as the perfect season, falls short of the youths perfection
and is unworthy to be compared to him. Summer has Rough winds, and too short a lease while the
youths eternal summer is reinforced at the beginning of the sestet.
The sun is represented as the eye of heaven. The gold complexion dimmed can be interpreted both
as the suns strength and beauty tarnished by clouds, just as the youths beauty will be tarnished by
time, but also complexion can be read as temperament (i.e. a combination of the four humours).
This latter interpretation echoes temperate of line 2 effectively. (Ray, 1994)
Natures untrimmed has a double meaning. It can mean either unadorned, indicating that Nature will
strip the youth of his fair beauty but can also refer to the sails of a ship, suggesting that Natures
course is unadjusted. However, Jungman (2003) has suggested that the untrimmed may actually mean
unadjusted and therefore Shakespeare is saying that the thing that remains unchanged is Natures

changing, mutability is eternal. This interpretation strengthens the structure of the sonnet with the
octave representing change and the sestet reinforcing the endurance of the written words.
THEMATIC and SYMBOLIC ANALYSIS
CHANGE, FATE, AND ETERNITY
However much it might look hes praising a beloved, this poet is definitely more concerned with tooting
his own horn. Really, you could sum up the poem like this: "Dear Beloved: Youre better than a
summers day. But only because I can make you eternal by writing about you. Love, Shakespeare." That
message is why images and symbols of time, decay, and eternity are all over this poem. Whether or not
we think the beloved is actually made immortal (or just more immortal than the summers day) is up in
the air, but its certainly what the speaker wants you to think.

Line 4: This is where the speaker starts pointing to how short summer feels. Using
personification and metaphor, the speaker suggests that summer has taken out a lease on the
weather, which must be returned at the end of the summer. Summer is treated like a homerenter, while the weather is treated like a real-estate property.

Lines 7-8: These lines give us the problem (everythings going to fade away) that the poet is
going to work against.

Lines 9-12: These lines are full of all sorts of figurative language, all pointing to how the speaker
is going to save the beloved from the fate of fading away. The beloveds life is described in a
metaphor as a "summer," and then his or her beauty is described in another metaphor as a
commodity than can be owned or owed. Death is then personified, as the overseer of the shade
(a metaphor itself for an afterlife). Finally the "lines to time" are a metaphor for poetry, which
will ultimately save the beloved, and "eternal" is a parallel with "eternal summer" in line 9.

Lines 13-14: Whats so interesting about these lines is that its hard to tell whether the speaker
is using figurative language or not. Does he actually mean that the poem is alive, and that it will
keep the beloved alive? Well, it depends what we mean by "alive." If we read alive scientifically,
as in breathing and thinking, well then alive is definitely a metaphor. But if we read it as
describing a continued existence of some kind, well then maybe he does mean it literally, since
surely the poem and the beloved exist for us in some sense.

POETRY
If the major question of this poem is how to become immortal, and thus more wonderful than a
summers day, the speakers answer is poetry. For that reason, poetry takes on an inflated importance in
the poem, and is attended by dramatic, powerful language.

Line 1: This rhetorical question accomplishes a lot, including setting down the main axis of
comparison in the poem, and also implying that the speaker is only making a show of caring
what we readers or the beloved actually think (since he clearly cant care how or whether we

answer him). In addition to these roles, though, the word "compare" gives this line a special
charge, since it is a word that is so closely tied up with the role of poetry. If you were to try to
define poetry, one thing you might say is that poets really like to compare things that are really
dissimilar and show they can be connected. In a sense, then, we can read this line as "should I
write a poem about you?" In that way, the speaker has already made the act of writing poetry
an issue in this poem, and, as well see, his answer to this question is obviously, "heck yeah I
should write a poem about you, since I can make you immortal!"

Lines 12-14: These lines are where the poet finally begins to talk about poetry more clearly. The
phrase "lines to time," creates a metaphor for poetry, since poetry is lines of words set to a
time, or meter. Then, using a parallel in the last two lines, he asserts that as long as humans live,
his poetry will survive, and, in turn, so too will the beloved. The question, of course, is what he
means by the poem giving "life" to the beloved. Its in some sense a metaphor, at least, since
the poem isnt about to perform CPR on the beloveds corpse every time the poem is read. But if
"life" just means having someone think about you, then sure, the poem could give life to the
beloved.

PERSONIFIED NATURE
From the beginning of the poem, the speaker tries to set up a contrast between the beloved and a
summers day. He tries really hard to distinguish them, ultimately arguing that the beloved, unlike
nature, will be saved by the force and permanence of his poetry. The thing is, the contrast doesnt really
work, since summer, if anything, seems much more eternal than the beloved. If being written about
preserves immortality, then the summer ought to be immortal because the speakers writing about it as
well. And then theres the fact that summer actually is, in some sense, immortal, since it returns in full
force every year.

Line 1: This is a rhetorical question, as the speaker definitely doesnt care how or whether we
answer him, and it also introduces what will be the main metaphor of the poem, as the
summers day will be discussed using concepts more literally applicable to the beloved than to
summer itself.
Line 2: "Temperate" is a pun, since it carries two important meanings here. When applied to the
beloved, it means "showing moderation or self-restraint," but when applied to the summers
day it means, "having mild temperatures."
Lines 3-4: This is all personification here. Even if winds might really be able to "shake" things,
and buds could be described as "darling," these are both words more often applied to human
actions. The next line is a much more obvious case of personification, as summer cant literally
take out a lease on anything. Note also that this implies a metaphor of the weather as a rentable
property. Also, the "darling buds" introduce an extended metaphor of plant life and the
conditions needed to sustain life that runs through the rest of the poem
Lines 5-6: Theres the apparent opposition here, in that sometimes the weather is too hot, and
sometimes its too cold. But theres also personification with "eye" and "complexion." Whats
more, "complexion" doesnt just mean the appearance of the face, but also had a second

meaning in Shakespeares time, referring to someones general internal well-being. Note also
that the plant life extended metaphor is continued in "shines" and "dimmd," since plants need
light in order to flourish.
Line 9: Here the personification is inverted: instead of describing nature in human terms, the
speaker is describing the beloved in the terms of nature, giving him or her an "eternal summer"
which could not literally apply.
Line 11: "Shade" makes for a continuation of the plant life extended metaphor, since if youre a
plant stuck in the shade, thats some bad news. "Shade" is also a pun, because it can mean
"ghost."
Line 12: The plant life extended metaphor is completed, as the speaker finally points out a way
that plants can "grow," instead of all of these problems they faced in previous lines of the poem.
Now what is this way? Well, perhaps aside from suggesting poetry, "lines to time" could also
conjure up an image of plants lined up in rows in a farm. In other words, plants need to be
organized and cultivated by humans in order to survive. This works really well with the main
theme in the rest of the poem: that the beloved needs to be organized and developed by the
poet in order to survive.

LEASES and DEBT

The speaker of "Sonnet 18" is really trying to simplify nature and fate, since hes trying to hurdle over
their limitations with his poetry. One way he does it is to reduce them to economic transactions
something simple, easy to understand, and most importantly, work around.

Line 4: He describes summer as having a "lease" over the weather. This is, of course,
personification, since summer couldnt hold a lease, but for the purposes of this theme, its also
a metaphor, since the weather isnt actually a product that can be bought, sold, or rented.
Line 10: Here the speaker jumps back into the economics lingo, using both a metaphor and a
pun. The metaphor is similar to what we saw in line 4: here beauty, instead of the weather, is
what can be bought, sold, and rented. But here theres also a cool pun with the word "owst," as
it could mean both "owest" and "ownest." Either way, hes still playing with the property
metaphor, but we can wonder whether the beloveds beauty is something he or she owns, or
something that he or she has only borrowed, and would have to return if not for the speakers
poetry.