1. Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
2. Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
3. Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
4. And summer's lease hath all too short a date.
5. Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
6. And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
7. And every fair from fair sometime declines,
8. By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;
9. But thy eternal summer shall not fade
10. Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;
11. Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
12. When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st:
13. So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
14. So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
Other poems by Shakespeare ...
1. Original Text: William Shakespeare, Shake-speares sonnets (London: G. Eld for T. T., 1609). STC 22353. Facs. edn.: London: J. Cape, 1925. PR 2750 B48 1609b ROBA.
2. First Publication Date: 1609.
3. Line 4 - date: duration, period.
4. Line 7 - fair: beauty.
5. Line 8 - untrimm'd: stripped of its ornament.
6. Line 10 - ow'st: "own'st," possessest.