1 Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? The opening question that launches one of literature's greatest poems about beauty and mortality.
Should I compare you to a summer's day? Is 'you're like a beautiful summer day' really the best I can do? how do i even describe how beautiful you are
2 Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
You are more lovely and more balanced, You're more perfect and more consistent than summer, you're more perfect than summer 'Temperate' = mild, well-balanced, moderate; contrasts with summer's extremes.
3 Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
Rough winds shake delicate spring flowers, because harsh winds destroy the delicate flowers, rough winds kill flowers
4 And summer’s lease hath all too short a date:
And summer's duration lasts all too briefly, and summer itself is over way too fast, and summer ends too quick 'Lease' = tenure, term of occupation; 'date' = duration.
5 Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
Sometimes the sun shines too hot, Sometimes the sun burns way too intensely, sun too hot sometimes 'Eye of heaven' = the sun.
6 And often is his gold complexion dimmed,
And often his golden light is dimmed by clouds, and clouds often hide the sun's beautiful glow, clouds hide the sun 'Gold complexion' = the sun's golden appearance.
7 And every fair from fair sometime declines,
And all beauty eventually fades from beauty, and everything beautiful eventually becomes ugly, all beauty fades 'Fair' (noun) = beauty; the line uses the word twice for emphasis and universality.
Wordplay
- fair (noun) = beauty, beauty's form
- the repetition of 'fair' emphasizes the tautological universality: all beauty declines from beauty
- the pun is structural rather than lexical—it uses one word's multiplicity to express an inevitable law
8 By chance, or nature’s changing course untrimmed:
By accident or nature's unchecked passage, by accident or nature doing what it always does—destroying things. nature destroys everything 'Untrimmed' = unchecked, unrestrained; nature as wild, beyond human control.
Volta The shift from comparing the young man to summer (with summer's inevitable fading) to declaring his beauty will never fade—because poetry will preserve it eternally.
9 But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
But your eternal summer will never fade, But you—your beauty will last forever, but you'll never fade
10 Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
Nor will you lose the beauty you possess, and you'll never lose the beauty you own, never lose your beauty 'Ow'st' = possessest, own; archaic form of 'owe' (possess).
11 Nor shall death brag thou wand’rest in his shade,
Nor shall death boast that you wander in his darkness, Death can't claim that you belong to death, death can't have you 'Shade' = shadows, realm of the dead; 'wand'rest' = wander.
12 When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st, The volta's central claim: immortality through poetry, expressed as growth within 'eternal lines.'
When in eternal poetry you grow stronger through time, because you grow eternal through my verses, you live forever in my verses 'Eternal lines' = imperishable poetry; 'grow'st' = grow, increase, flourish.
Wordplay
- lines = verses, poetry
- lines = temporal succession, the passing of time itself
- paradox: the young man grows in poetic lines while being protected from time's passing
13 So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
As long as humans can breathe and see, As long as people exist and can read, as long as people live
14 So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. The concluding paradox: the poem gives life to the young man, and the poem itself is immortal.
So long will this poem live, and give you eternal life. this poem will live forever and keep you alive forever in it. this poem lives forever and keeps you alive 'This' = the poem itself; reflexive claim that the sonnet grants immortality.