Sonnet 18
William Shakespeare

Pattern: a, b, a, b, c, d, c, d, e, f, e, f, g, g
Tone of poem: loving, romantic, praising
Themes: Love for another being, the immortality of verse and transience of beauty

Understanding the poem (Line by Line analysis)

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
(Can I ever compare you to a beautiful and perfect day in summer?)
Thou art more lovely and more temperate,
(As you are more beautiful and suits me well, not too hot like a day in summer)
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
(Strong winds can blow hard and destroy the delicate and fragile flower buds)
And summer’s lease hath all too short to date:
(‘Lease’ refers to duration of days with sunshine. As you might know, summer only lasts 3 months a year (too short!)
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
(The ‘eye of heaven’ refers to sun. The sun can be too hot in summer)
And often is his gold complexion dimm’d,
(Sometimes the sun can be hidden and its light may be faded)
And every fair from fair sometimes declines,
(‘Fair’ refers to beauty. It says that beauty is not perfect and fades)
By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimm’d;
(Beauty can be lost accidentally or through natural course/passing time)
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
(Yet, the poet feels the woman’s will not deteriorate or lost due to anything)
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
(She will possess an everlasting beauty)
Nor shall Death brag thou wand’rest in his shade,
(Death can never claim her as his because she will always be remembered)
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st.
(Her beauty will be immortalized in these lines of poem)
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
(As long as men live or read about you)
So long lives this, and this gives live to thee
(As long as people read this sonnet, her beauty will last forever.)

Personification:
Line 11= Death described as a braggart (like a human who likes to boast
Line 6 = The eye of heaven (sun) described to have golden, pleasantly tanned skin as desired by a lot of pale-skinned Caucasians.

Metaphor:
Line 9= ‘Eternal lines’ represents poems to will be read for many years
Line 5= ‘The eye of heaven’ represents sun. It goes on to show that even the most important part of the most wonderful thing (heaven) might not be as perfect as the woman’s beauty.