by Domnall Óg
Home >> Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
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 oft’ 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 wanderest 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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Modern English Tranlsation of Sonnet 18
Let me compare you to a summer’s day - You are more lovely and more constant: Rough winds shake the much loved young flowers of May And summer is far too short: At times the sun is too hot, Or often goes behind the clouds; And everything beautiful sometime will lose its beauty, By bad luck or by nature’s unstoppable course. But your youth will not disappear, Nor will you lose the beauty that you have; Nor will death claim you for his own, Because in my eternal verse you will live forever. As long as there are people on this earth, So long will this poem live on, making you immortal.
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Posted on http://www.weeklyletter.com at 2007-09-06 10:00:00 +0200
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I also like this, from Antony and Cleopatra:
Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale
Her infinite variety
And this from Rupert Everett’s account of his early days in Los Angeles:
Twelve people sat around the crimson lounge. Gregory and Veronique Peck were the staggeringly perfect older couple on a sofa.
One of my favourite love lyrics is from the song “How Was it for You?” by James
They say you are as good as you look
But that would be impossible
For you are better than the face of God
On a sunny day
I am afraid I would be voted winter, but winter has it’s good things, too… Like Christmas…
I’ve always seen you as a late Spring, Wesley!
Don’t get me started on Christmas…it’s too soon!
:-)
I like very much Fall, for me it is the most romantic season. I think that is sad, and the romantic poetry must be sad.
Getting older is also sad, but love must be able to do that this doesn’t matter.
Conchi Calvo
I like Fall (Autumn) too. I like the golds, oranges and browns of the fallen leaves and the sense that the world is settling in for the evening.
Getting older can be sad if you don’t embrace it. That reminds me of the story of the traveller who asked a farmer what the weather would be like tomorrow.
‘Just the sort of weather I love,’ said the farmer.
‘So what then? Sun? Breezey? Rain?’
‘I don’t know’
‘But you just said—’
‘As I know I can’t do anything to change the weather, I’ve decided to like whatever comes along.’
—“And, in the end, the love you take/ Is equal to the love you make.” (The Beatles)
Or
What about this?
“It’s still the same old story
A fight for love and glory
A case of do or die.
The world will always welcome lovers
As time goes by.”
That’s a good tune to whistle. You know how to whistle, don’t you?