Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

Shall I compare you to a summer's day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

You are more lovely and more temperate:

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

Rough winds shake the darling buds of May

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

And summer is far too short a date:

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,

Sometime the sun shines too hot,

And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;

And often dims his gold complexion behind the clouds;

And every fair from fair sometime declines,

And every beautiful thing eventually will lose its beauty,

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

By chance or by nature's planned out course.

But thy eternal summer shall not fade

But your youth shall not fade,

Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;

Nor will you lose the beauty that you possess;

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

Nor will death claim you under his shade,

When in eternal lines to time thou growest:

Because in my eternal verse you will forever live.

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,

So long lives this and this gives life to thee.