sonnet 18 explained: by gardega

SONNET 18

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? 

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

And summer's lease hath all too short a date: 

(summer--- as a metaphor for life--- is very brief)

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,

(the sun---life is very hard at times)

And often is his gold complexion dimm'd; 

(ups and downs)

And every fair from fair sometime declines,

(Beauty is ephemeral--fleeting)

By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;

But thy eternal summer shall not fade

(your memory will never die)

Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;

Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,

death wont have dominion over your memory

When in eternal lines to time thou growest: 

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,

(time immortal)
So long lives this and this gives life to thee.

by writing this the poet has given eternal life to the subject--her memory never will die as long as the poem lives on--

this is why I like sonnet 18, it is about the longevity of art and how a thing of beauty is a joy foever (to steal from another poet, (keats I think)

MY TWO CENTS