A Poem for National Poetry Month

The following poem was taken from Beauty Poetry, a new title in Enslow's Pure Poetry series, and was written by William Shakespeare. The four books in this series each cover a different poetry theme. Each chapter looks at one poem accompanied by detailed analysis discussing the style and technique, poetic devices, and the cultural significance. Every chapter ends with questions, and prompts students to discuss and assess the featured poems.

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 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 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.

This entire series is correlated to the Common Core College and Career Readiness Standards, and can be obtained from your preferred vendor, local bookstores, enslow.com, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble. They are available in paperback, library, and eBook formats.