Shall I Compare Thee

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.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimmed;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,
Nor shall death brag thou wand'rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to Time thou grow'st.
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. 

-William Shakespeare

This was another poem recommended to me by my teacher, and it is another sonnet by Shakespeare. Compared to the previous love poem by Shakespeare I analyzed, this poem is much more direct in its approach. When in Disgrace had a subtler feel to it. Nowhere was there a line describing the virtues of the poet's lover, and there was no excessive hyperbole expressing or comparing the love the poet feels. In Shall I Compare Thee, the poet immediately describes the lover as being more lovely and temperate than a summer's day. The entire purpose of this poem is to ascribe virtues to the lover; indeed, the title of the poem is "Shall I Compare Thee", suggesting the lover will be compared to many positive things.
The theme of the poem clearly is that of attributing virtues to the lover of the poet. The lover is described as being more lovely and temperate than a summer's day, and with those features lasting eternally, whereas the summer eventually fades and wanes. Her beauty is described as being so eternal that even when she dies, she will live on in the memories of other people.
Shall I Compare Thee is very direct in its meaning. The phrases are neither subtle nor vague, making their meanings and intentions very clear. While this may reduce the depth and power of the ideas conveyed by the poem, it makes it efficient and effective at presenting its ideas.
This poem was simple and pleasant to read; the themes and concepts presented by it were not difficult to comprehend, and the simple rhyme scheme was enjoying to encounter.