"Sonnet 18"
by William Shakespeare
SSAT Reading Practice - Poetry Analysis
The Poem
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 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 wander'st 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.
Reading Tips
- • Notice the comparison between the beloved and a summer's day
- • Pay attention to the structure: three quatrains and a couplet
- • Consider what makes the beloved superior to summer
- • Think about the promise made in the final couplet
Comprehension Questions
1. What is the main theme of Sonnet 18?
2. What literary device is used in 'Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?'
3. What does 'rough winds do shake the darling buds of May' suggest?
4. What is the rhyme scheme of this sonnet?
5. What does the final couplet promise?
About the Poem
Sonnet 18 is one of William Shakespeare's most famous sonnets, written around 1609. It belongs to the "Fair Youth" sequence and is often considered one of the most beautiful love poems in the English language.
The sonnet follows the traditional Shakespearean form with 14 lines, written in iambic pentameter with the rhyme scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. The poem begins by comparing the beloved to a summer's day, but then argues that the beloved is superior to summer in every way.
The central theme is the power of poetry to immortalize beauty. While natural beauty fades with time, the beloved's beauty will live forever through the verses of this poem. The final couplet makes this promise explicit: as long as people can read, this poem will keep the beloved's beauty alive.