Summary
Highlights
Sonnet 18, famous for the line "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day," is one of Shakespeare's most notable sonnets. The narrator wonders if he should compare his beloved to a summer's day, but then lists all the imperfections of summer, concluding that his beloved will never fade, and will live on through this poem.
Like most of Shakespeare's sonnets, Sonnet 18 has fourteen lines and follows an AABB CCDD EEFF GG rhyme scheme. Clues in the poem, such as the use of 'his' on line 11 and 'internal lines' in line 12, suggest that 'thee' is a male and that the narrator is writing a poem about his own poetry.
The narrator implies that as long as people read his poem, 'thee' (the poem itself, or the poetry) will live on. This suggests Shakespeare believed his own works would endure, ensuring his own immortality through his plays and sonnets.