Question

what do you understand by "the eye of heaven shines"?

Answer 1

This is Sonnet 18, one of Shakespeare's most famous sonnets. The poem starts with a line of adoration to the beloved—"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" The speaker then goes on to say that the beloved being described is both "more lovely and more temperate" than a summer's day. The speaker lists some things that are negative about summer. It is too short—"summer's lease hath all too short a date"—and sometimes the sun shines too hot—"Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines." However, the beloved being described has beauty that will last forever, unlike the fleeting beauty of a summer's day. By putting his love's beauty into the form of poetry, the poet is preserving it forever by the power of his written words. "So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee." The hope is that the two lovers can live on, if not through children, then through the poems brought forth by their love which, unlike children, will not fade.