Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

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 ow'st;
Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Introduction

"Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day?" is a sonnet by William Shakespeare

The poem is a tribute to Wordsworth's daughter, Catherine, who died at the age of three. The poem reflects Wordsworth's beliefs about the beauty and power of nature, as well as his own sense of loss and grief over the death of his child.

The poem "Three Years She Grew in Sun and Shower" by William Wordsworth is about a young girl named Lucy, the character who symbolizes his daughter, Catherine

Summary

In this poem, Nature proclaims that the girl who grew in sun and shower for three years is the loveliest flower to have ever graced the earth. Nature decides to take the child under her wing and shape her into a lady, being both her law and inspiration. The child will experience nature's power in all its glory, be it on the rocky terrain, in the lush meadows, or in the heavens above.

Nature will inspire and restrain her, molding her behavior and form through silent sympathy with the storm's motions and gracefulness from the clouds. The child will be delighted by the simple things in life, such as the rivulets moving around like a dance and the murmuring sounds being a melody to her ears.

These vital feelings of joy will help the girl grow into a young maiden, and Nature will provide these experiences to her in the happy valley. Lucy grew up as Nature intended, and when her final days arrived, the poet was left alone in the serene heath with the memories of what has been and what will never be again.

Explanation

Line 1: "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?"The speaker begins the poem by posing a question: should he compare his beloved to a summer's day? This sets up the central metaphor of the poem, which compares the speaker's beloved to the beauty and transience of a summer's day.

Line 2: "Thou art more lovely and more temperate." The speaker answers his own question, asserting that his beloved is actually more lovely and moderate than a summer's day. This is the first indication that the speaker's beloved is something special and unique.

Line 3: "Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May."The speaker begins to enumerate some of the ways in which a summer's day can be less than perfect. Here, he notes that strong winds can harm the tender buds that appear in May.

Line 4: "And summer's lease hath all too short a date."The metaphor of a summer's day as a lease continues, with the speaker noting that summer is very brief and quickly comes to an end.

Line 5: "Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines."The "eye of heaven" is the sun, and the speaker observes that it can sometimes shine too hotly, making the day uncomfortable.

Line 6: "And often is his gold complexion dimm'd."Here, the speaker notes that sometimes the sun is obscured or dimmed, which can make the day less beautiful.

Line 7 and 8: "And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd." The speaker notes that all beauty is subject to decline, either by chance or by the natural course of things.

Line 9: But thy eternal summer shall not fade."Here, the speaker introduces the idea that his beloved's beauty is eternal and will not fade like a summer's day.

Line 10: "Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st."The speaker asserts that his beloved will always retain their beauty, and that it belongs to them alone.

Line 11: "Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade."The speaker argues that even Death, a common theme in Shakespeare's sonnets, cannot claim his beloved, as they will live on in the poem and in the memories of others.

Line 12: "When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st."The speaker concludes that his beloved's beauty will live on in the poem, which will be read and remembered by others for all time.

Line 13: "So long as men can breathe or eyes can see."The poem's final couplet asserts that as long as people continue to breathe and see, the memory of the speaker's beloved will live on.

Line 14: "So long lives this, and this gives life to thee."The poem itself, the "eternal lines" mentioned earlier, will keep the memory of the speaker's beloved alive, giving them immortality through the power of poetry.

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Three Years She Grew In Sun and Shower Picture
Three Years She Grew In Sun And Shower

This poem explores the idea of beauty and immortality through a comparison between the speaker's beloved and a summer's day.Read more ...