How does Shakespeare compare the beauty of his friend to that of a summer's day in sonnet 18?
Answers
Interestingly, although Shakespeare begins this sonnet with the question, "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?," the thrust of the poem is ultimately that, in fact, such a comparison would be inappropriate. Shakespeare is identifying an easy comparison typical of courtly romantic discourse and determining that, as far as he is concerned, to compare a beautiful person to a summer's day would be to do them a disservice
The poet makes this argument by challenging the idea that a "summer's day" is, in fact, something to be envied. His lover, he says, is both "more lovely and more temperate," and does not suffer from the many and varied drawbacks of summer. Summer can, indeed, have many downsides: "sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines," and "summer's lease hath all too short a date." Summer is fleeting, and its weather can be uncomfortable when "rough winds do shake the darling buds of May." Shakespeare's lover, on the contrary, has an advantage over a summer's day in that his "eternal beauty shall not fade." Where summer can last only for a season, the poet's beloved will be forever young, in that he will be immortalized in the poet's verse—"So long as men can breathe or eyes can see / So long lives this, and this gives life to thee."
Answer:
why does not Shakespeare like to compare his friend to a summer day