Shakespeare Love Poems – Sonnet 18 Analysis (Shall I Compare You?)

Sonnet 18 Analysis: 1st quatrain

Sonnet 18 is the most famous of Shakespeare’s love poems. In the story of Shakespeare’s sonnets, the main character addresses this message to the beautiful young woman, with whom he shares a special love. Whether the love is platonic or sexual has been debated over the years, however the romantic and amorous nature of this sonnet cannot be debated. The writer begins by asking, Should I compare you to a summer’s day?, and he is comparing the beauty, youth, and vitality of the handsome young man to that of a summer’s day. The writer also says that the beautiful young man is more beautiful and milder than a summer day, possibly saying that the beautiful young man is more calm, kind and gentle.

But the last two lines of this quatrain say that summer is too short, and they begin to question the good looks of the beautiful young men, will they last forever?

second quartet

In this quatrain, negative thoughts and worries begin to fill the writer’s head. He begins by continuing with his thoughts that summer is too short. You can feel quite a pensive and doubtful mood when he talks about summer being too hot and at other times too cold – the nasty extremes of summer. So, although the beautiful young man is charming, sometimes the beautiful young man can also be angry, and he can also be harsh. Then he begins to question nature, “… every fair of the fair at some point declines”, even beautiful and beautiful things, such as beautiful youth will lose their beauty before the “change of course of nature”.

3rd quartet

But a new sense of vigor seems to have come over the writer at the beginning of this quatrain, when he says firmly, “Your eternal summer will not fade.” He says that the beauty and vitality of beautiful young people will not fade. He says that you will not lose your youth, nor the beauty you possess, and death will not claim you as its own. The writer could be saying that the inner beauty of the beautiful girl will not fade, and there is certainly an element to that with these poetic words, but in addition, the writer is also saying with the words “with eternal lines” that the beauty of the beautiful young woman is immortalized in the words of this sonnet.

Final verse in rhyme

The last rhyming couplet of any Shakespearean sonnet, this reinforces the writers’ earlier claim. That as long as there are people on this earth to read these words, the spirit and beauty of beautiful youth will live on in this poem.

Here is Shakespeare’s love poem, Sonnet 18. I’ve even broken this poem up into quatrains for you.

1st quartet

Shall I compare you to a summer day?

You are more beautiful and warmer;

Rough winds shake the dear buds of May,

And the summer lease is dated too short;

second quartet

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,

And often his golden complexion darkens;

And every fair fair sometime declines,

By chance or by the changing course of untrimmed nature;

3rd quartet

But your eternal summer will not fade

Nor lose possession of that beautiful you ow’st;

Not even death will boast that you wander in its shadow,

when in eternal lines to time you grow:

Final verse in rhyme

As long as men can breathe or eyes can see,

So live this, and this gives you life.

If you’d like to learn more about Shakespeare’s love poems, or indeed anything to do with romance and Shakespeare, take a look at some of my other posts at shakespeare love poems