SONNET 18	PARAPHRASE
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 beautiful and gentle.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,	Stormy winds will shake the May flowers,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date.	and summer lasts for too short of a time.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,	Sometimes the sun is too hot,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd,	and many times it is overcast,
And every fair from fair sometime declines,	and everything beautiful eventually decays,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd.	either by some unforseen circumstance, or nature's course.
But thy eternal summer shall not fade	But your beauty will never fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest,	or lose its inherent loveliness,
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,	even Death will not be able to claim you,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest.	when in my eternal poetry you will grow.
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,	As long as there are people who see and breathe,
So long lives this and this gives life to thee.	this will live and give you life.