Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day

William Shakespeare- Sonnet 18

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 oft' 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.

1. Vocabulary: temperate (2), shade (11). What different meanings does "temperate" have when used to describe a person or "a summer's day"?

Generally, to be temperate is to be moderate. A temperate person us one who avoids extravagance. A temperate climate, or temperate "summer's day," is one which lacks extremes in temperature.

2. What details show that "a summer's day" is lacking in loveliness and is intemperate?

"Rough winds," the (sometimes excessive) heat of the sun, and the fact that they must end and give way to the other seasons show that summer days are not as lovely or intermperate as one would believe.

3. What are "the eye of heaven" (5) and "his gold complexion" (6)?

The sun and the sun's rays.

4. The poem begins more or less literally comparing the person being addressed to "a summer's day," but at line 9 it departs from what is literally possible into what is impossible. What does the poem gain by this shift in meaning?

The poem becomes more than just a sappy love poem--for me it almost becomes sad. The idea if someone never losing their beauty makes me think of death--a young person remembered as they were, a rose in full bloom, or a temperate summer's day.

5. Explain the logic behind lines 13-14. Is it valid proof? Why or why not?

The poet is stating that the subject, their beloved, will live on in the poem. The subject will forever be beautiful in the poem, which will be read or relevant as long as man continues to exist.