“But thy eternal summer shall not fade” (Shakespeare, line 9). Sonnet 18: Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?, deals with William Shakespeare’s dearly loved. He spends the poem comparing his beloved to the beauty of a summer’s day. His beloved’s beauty can coexist with summer and indeed be more pleasant, but it is not a replacement for it.
This poem is significant as it is a great love story. A story about how earthly things dull with time, but the beauty of his love will not. It also is significant in today’s day and age. As we fall in love, their beauty becomes so much more than what is around us.
There are many different parts of this poem that stand out to me. One of the aspects is the meter. This is written in iambic pentameter, meaning there is 10 syllables per line. One would have to put a lot of effort into their work to get every line to be this same meter. This adds a beat to the line as you read it making it more uniform. Shakespeare also uses personification in his poem. When he says, “And often in his gold complexion dimm’d” (Shakespeare, line 6). He gives the sun personal features when he uses the word ‘complexion’ and ‘his’. This adds imagery to the art as you read it.
When comparing this to other poems that deal with love. Shakespeare writes about beauty that outshines the sun and flowers. When I read One Hundred Love Sonnets: XVII by Pablo Nerudo, he writes about a love so hidden and slow to take over that one may not notice it. It says, “I love you as one loves certain obscure things, secretly, between the shadow and the soul” (Neruda, line 3-4). The difference in these poems show that everyone shows love differently, whether it be more hidden or as bright as the sun.
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day is a beautiful declaration of love for our beloveds. Being able to walk outside and enjoy a wonderful summer’s day, but also acknowledging that someone we love is more beautiful is advice we can take form Shakespeare. Living in a society that is chronically online, we can take the importance of communicating how much we love to the person we love.