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 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 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.
Sonnet 18
Shall I compare you to a summer day? You're lovelier and milder. Rough winds shake the pretty buds of May, and summer doesn't last nearly long enough. Sometimes the sun shines too hot, and often its golden face is darkened by clouds. And everything beautiful stops being beautiful, either by accident or simply in the course of nature. But your eternal summer will never fade, nor will you lose possession of your beauty, nor shall death brag that you are wandering in the underworld, once you're captured in my eternal verses. As long as men are alive and have eyes with which to see, this poem will live and keep you alive.

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