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Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day

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Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day
Administrator | Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day | William Shakespeare | | |

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day by William Shakespeare is a poem that compares a young men’s beauty with the magnificence and excitement of summer time.
In the first quatrain, Shakespeare attempts to find something that compares to the beauty of the young man. Using metaphors, he compares the young man to a summer's day, but realizes that the young man is both more beautiful and more amusing than summer. The flower buds that appear in the May (spring is usually the time of love) are shattered by the strong winds; thus, summer can be harsh and rough, which the young man isn’t. Summer is a season that only last for a short period of time, which is scarce for the description of this young man. Shakespeare tries to capture the magnificence of his beauty by comparing it to others things.
The second quatrain is about nature. The "eye of heaven" is referring to the sun. Line six suggests a different extreme weather difference; summer lacks the expected brightness, meaning that it is humid or rainy. Additionally, the things that we supposed to be beautiful during the summer months like flowers, plants, and the landscape; frequently can change or lose their natural beauty due to excessively hot temperatures or too much moisture and not enough sun. In the third quatrain, the speaker proclaims that the young man is greater than nature, because his beauty wouldn’t change like summer does. "Ow'st," in line ten, stands for: you have or you possess, meaning that the young man owns his beauty to nature. The speaker displays beauty as if it is a possession and is eternal, instead of something that has been given to the young man as a present of Nature that will ultimately vanish.
The main focus of this poem is to declare and celebrate the beauty of the young men. The speaker knows that the young man is human; consequently, youth and beauty only last for a period of time and

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