Thy eternal summer shall not fade

William Shakespeare’s 18^th sonnet

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.

Sorry I haven’t posted in a while.  Technology has won many battles, but I seem to have won the war!  *maniacal laugh*   

One of Shakespeare’s most famous sonnets, Sonnet 18, or “Shall I Compare Thee To A Summer;s Day?” is probably one of the loveliest poems ever written.  I use the word lovely in the most blatant sense possible.  It’s a love poem.  It is also pleasing to the ear, and it has beautiful summer imagery.  This is one of those poems that, if recited, will make women swoon and blush (if they like that kind of thing).  Pretty easy to understand, it’s no wonder it is the most well-known of Shakespeare’s non-dramatic works.

How would you feel if your significant other (or a complete stranger?) recited this to you?  Would you ever think of reciting poetry to woo another, and why?  What else do you think of this poem?