romeo and juliet sonnet shall i compare thee to a summer's day
Sonnet 18 Sonnet 18, often alternatively titled Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?, is one of the best-known of 154 sonnets written by the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare. Part of the Fair Youth sequence (which comprises sonnets 1â€“126 in the accepted numbering stemming from the first edition in 1609), it is the first of the cycle after the opening sequence now described as the procreation sonnets.
Rosaline Before Romeo meets Juliet, he loves Rosaline, Capulet's niece and Juliet's cousin. He describes her as wonderfully beautiful: "The all-seeing sun / ne'er saw her match since first the world begun."[1] Rosaline, however, chooses to remain chaste; Romeo says: "She hath forsworn to love, and in that vow / Do I live dead that live to tell it now."[2] This is the source of his depression, and he makes his friends unhappy; Mercutio comments: "That same pale, hard-hearted wench, that Rosaline, torments him so that he will sure run mad."[3] Benvolio urges Romeo to sneak into a Capulet gathering where, he claims, Rosaline will look like "a crow" alongside the other beautiful women.[4] Romeo agrees, but doubts Benvolio's assessment. After Romeo sees Juliet his feelings suddenly change: "Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight / For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night."[5] Because their relationship is sudden and secret, Romeo's friends and Friar Laurence continue to speak of his affection for Rosaline throughout much of the play.