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Shakespearean sonnets on love

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

William Shakespeare needs no introduction
William Shakespeare needs no introduction

Sonnet 17

  • Who will believe my verse in time to come,
  • If it were filled with your most high deserts?
  • Though yet heaven knows it is but as a tomb
  • Which hides your life, and shows not half your parts.
  • If I could write the beauty of your eyes,
  • And in fresh numbers number all your graces,
  • The age to come would say ‘This poet lies;
  • Such heavenly touches ne’er touched earthly faces.’
  • So should my papers, yellowed with their age,
  • Be scorned, like old men of less truth than tongue,
  • And your true rights be termed a poet’s rage
  • And stretched metre of an antique song:
  •    But were some child of yours alive that time,
  •    You should live twice, in it, and in my rhyme.

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:
  • 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 wander’st 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 (1564–1616) needs no introduction on a poetry page. The general reading public usually demonstrates an increased interest in his work, especially his sonnets on love, around Valentine’s Day. This year, devotees to his life and work will be commemorating the 400th anniversary of his death on April 23.

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March is typically windy, Sage scents in the foothills

Butterflies may cross the county
William Shakespeare needs no introduction
William Shakespeare needs no introduction

Sonnet 17

  • Who will believe my verse in time to come,
  • If it were filled with your most high deserts?
  • Though yet heaven knows it is but as a tomb
  • Which hides your life, and shows not half your parts.
  • If I could write the beauty of your eyes,
  • And in fresh numbers number all your graces,
  • The age to come would say ‘This poet lies;
  • Such heavenly touches ne’er touched earthly faces.’
  • So should my papers, yellowed with their age,
  • Be scorned, like old men of less truth than tongue,
  • And your true rights be termed a poet’s rage
  • And stretched metre of an antique song:
  •    But were some child of yours alive that time,
  •    You should live twice, in it, and in my rhyme.

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:
  • 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 wander’st 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 (1564–1616) needs no introduction on a poetry page. The general reading public usually demonstrates an increased interest in his work, especially his sonnets on love, around Valentine’s Day. This year, devotees to his life and work will be commemorating the 400th anniversary of his death on April 23.

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4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
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