Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

The first line of a sonnet by William Shakespeare . The poet notes that beautiful days and seasons do not last but declares that his love's “eternal summer shall not fade” because his poem makes his love immortal: “So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, / So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.”

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Example Sentences

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Lord Cashman, a friend of O'Grady's, told BBC Radio Kent he would read Shakespeare's Sonnet 18, which begins "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?"

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He woos Jewels not just by reciting “Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day” but also by bragging about his Black Lives Matter chants.

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Number 18 — which begins, “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” — leads, in effect, to the conclusion, “You’re pretty, but you’re going to die, and this poem will live forever.”

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“We have big, beautiful brains. We invent things that fly. Fly. We write poetry. You probably hate poetry, but it’s hard to argue with ‘Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?