Sonnet 18 - Paraphrase

Paraphrase

The poem starts with a flattering question to the beloved—"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" The beloved is both "more lovely and more temperate" than a summer's day. The speaker lists some negative things about summer: it is short—"summer's lease hath all too short a date"—and sometimes the sun is too hot—"Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines." However, the beloved has beauty that will last forever, unlike the fleeting beauty of a summer's day. By putting his love's beauty into the form of poetry, the poet is preserving it forever. "So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee." The lover's beauty will live on, through the poem which will last as long as it can be read.

The poet never describes anything specific about the beloved. None of the qualities which make the beloved superior to a summer's day are actually possible - remaining eternally young and beautiful and never dying - nor are they inherent in the beloved. They are qualities given to the beloved by the poet through the act of writing the poem and only existing within it.