SHALL I COMPARE THEE TO A SUMMER'S DAY? (SONNETS XVIII) - Anne Bradstreet Poems

 
 

Poems » anne bradstreet » shall i compare thee to a summer s day (sonnets xviii)

SHALL I COMPARE THEE TO A SUMMER'S DAY? (SONNETS XVIII)
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 dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
      So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
      So long lives this and this gives life to thee.

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