Shakespeare Sonnet 18

Sonnet 18 

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

A famous sonnet by WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.

Here it's sung by David Gilmour

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.

MODERN TEXT

Shall I compare you to a summer day?

 You’re more lovely and milder. 

Rough winds shake the pretty buds of May, 

and summer doesn’t last nearly long enough. 

Sometimes the sun shines too hot, 

and often its golden face is darkened by clouds. 

And everything beautiful stops being beautiful, 

either by accident or simply in the course of nature. 

But your eternal summer will never fade, 

nor will you lose possession of your beauty, 

nor shall death brag that you are wandering in the underworld, 

once you’re captured in my eternal verses.

 As long as men are alive and have eyes with which to see, 

this poem will live and keep you alive