Shall I Compare Thee By William Shakespeare - Love Poem Shall I Compare Thee By William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare is well known for his novels and dramas. However, he also wrote some good sonnets at his last phase of life. During 1593-94, when London was under heavy plague, he wrote some poetry too. The sonnets were the last of Shakespeare's non-dramatic works to be printed. His poetry, particularly sonnets, is full of love and romance and 'Shall I Compare Thee' is typical of his other sonnets. It is an excellent exposition of imagery, where he asks his loved one whether he should compare her with a lovely summer's day. He says that she is more lovely and temperate then a summer's day. In this love poem, Shakespeare says that if he compares her with a summer's day, she would become immortal and her memories would sustain all across ages. Whenever these lines would be read, she would get re-birth and be rejuvenated. The poem 'Shall I compare thee' has been highly acclaimed by critics.

Shall I Compare Thee

Shall I compare thee to a Summer's day?

Thou are 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.