by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616)

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
 (Sung text for setting by W. Aikin)
 See original
Language: English 
Our translations:  FIN ITA
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 ow'st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to times thou grow'st:
  So long as men shall breathe or eyes can see,
  So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Composition:

    Set to music by William Arthur Aikin (1857 - 1939), "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?", published 1911 [ voice and piano ], confirmed with a CD booklet ; Stainer & Bell

Text Authorship:

See other settings of this text.

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):


Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Johann Winkler

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 14
Word count: 114