Sonnet XVII

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

Thou art more lovely and 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 dimmed.

And every fair from fair sometime declines,

By chance or nature’s changing course untrimmed

But thy eternal summer shall not fade, nor lose possession of that fair thou owest,

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

Sonnet XVII Poem Analysis

Sonnet XVII by William Shakespeare is a beautiful love poem that compares the author’s beloved to a summer day. The tone used by Shakespeare in this sonnet is very calm and confident as he exclaims with certainty that although the woman has a lot in common with the qualities of a summer day, she is “more lovely and temperate” and that her beauty will last for eternity. With this, he implies the theme of the poem: what is written in poetry is eternal.

Shakespeare uses a great deal of figurative language to articulate these differences and similarities, starting with the first line: “Shall I compare thee to a summer day?”. This outlines the metaphor for the whole poem (the one comparing a woman to summer). Lines 3-6 are examples of imagery, as many of the words are used to create vivid images in our minds. “Rough winds” and “sometime too hot the eye” appeal to our sense of touch, “heaven shines” and “gold complexion” appeal to our sense of sight, and “buds of may” appeal to our sense of smell. The lines, “Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, and often is his gold complexion dimmed” are imagery (as shown above) as well as personification because a complexion is an attribute which solely belongs to humans. Shakespeare uses personification again in line 10, “Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in its shade” (because death can’t brag). He even capitalizes the “D” to make it a proper noun. Lines 11-14 are hyperboles, as nothing is eternal. Without any of these devices, the poem would not be as vivid or interesting.

The mood of this sonnet is thoughtful and loving. The reader gets a good idea of how Shakespeare feels for the unknown woman, especially when reading the parts about eternal love and beauty, as in line 10: “But thy eternal summer shall not fade, nor lose possession of that fair thou owest” and line 2: “Thou art more lovely and temperate” (than a summer day).

Though it might seem like the theme of this sonnet is the power of love or other things along those lines, I strongly believe that it’s more directed towards the power of all good poetry; specifically this poem. When you think about it, it’s true: Shakespeare wrote Sonnet XVII sometime between 1593 and 1601 — and it’s now 2017. The fact that I even read this poem is surprising, but I wrote a whole analysis on it. This composition is physical proof of how great poems and literature can go from being words, stanzas, and books to becoming influential and historical works that live on through generations.