Meaning

Shakespeare opens by proposing a comparison between the person he addresses and a summer day, then immediately tilts the scales in favor of the person. A summer day, for all its beauty, is inconsistent and temporary: it can be too hot, too rough, or cut short by clouds. The beloved, by contrast, possesses a loveliness and a steadiness that the season cannot match. The poem goes on to argue that through verse, the beloved's qualities will be preserved long after summer and even long after the person themselves has gone.

Context

Sonnet 18 is one of the most recognized poems in the English language and belongs to the sequence of sonnets Shakespeare addressed to a young man, often called the Fair Youth. The sonnets were likely written during the 1590s and were published together in 1609. This particular sonnet is notable for the way it turns a conventional compliment into a meditation on the power of poetry itself. Rather than simply praising the subject, Shakespeare argues that the poem is the mechanism by which beauty survives time.

About the author

William Shakespeare was an English playwright and poet born in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1564. He spent much of his career in London, where he wrote and performed with the theatrical company known as the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later the King's Men. His output included comedies, tragedies, histories, and a sequence of 154 sonnets. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language, and his works have been continuously performed and studied for more than four centuries. He died in 1616.