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 ow’st;

Nor shall death brag thou wander’st 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.

Willie Shakespeare

In my studies of Shakespeare in high school, I recall vividly, our English Lit instructor, a fine looking man in his 40’s, reading with great effect, the aforementioned sonnet. Perhaps it was meant for a female, but coming from this eloquent example of masculinity, it sounded as if it was specifically written for some young swain who the author might have know briefly over a summer in the country. The joy and awe that Shakespeare feels on gazing at such beauty is palpable.

6 Replies to “Sonnet 18”

  1. Wow that is exactly why I’m gay and love being gay! Nothing better than watching a hot dude wank and shoot his hot thick spunk all over himself mmmmm

  2. This poem, one of the few I know off by heart, was almost certainly written for a man. Scholars have argued the toss ever since about the identity of the man, Mr W H of the dedication, the “onlie begetter” of the poems, as Shakespeare put it. But of his sex there can be little question. It is exquisitely beautiful and Leo is right to point to the joy and awe Shakespeare felt in gazing at this young man. Even though the poem’s conceit is that it is Shakespeare’s verse which will preserve the lad’s youth and beauty for evermore, so there’s an element of boasting there, nothing can detract from the intensity of this incomparable expression of male for male love.

    1. One of my favorite poems of all time. Love Shakespeare and Rabbie Burns as well although no gay inclinations that I know of.

  3. Sonnet O’ Cock: Lee from the mists o’ Avalon © 2023. Use with author’s permission. Art © by Lee.

    Thou be a wise soldier with strength an’ *micht,
    A treasure divine straightway *frae t’Gods.
    Soldier *graew engorged to length, what a *sicht
    To *gae *bar’d they girth’d arrow for men to laud.

    Thrust head, shaft, an’ balls for men to grasp,
    In that grasp cums thy wisdom and thy strength.
    Wisdom springs frae the nectar’s flow to cast
    Love cast upon the *haun that pleasured thy length.

    Ay, but let thine wisdom cast to shine *bricht,
    Be prideful nay to cease love by that state.
    Ahh, *gie soldier to soldier thrust thus gie micht,
    Micht that swells *byth soldiers twine mate to mate,

    Soldiers, ALL, wisdom an’ strength lies in thee,
    Head, shaft, balls in mind to mind sets free.

    *Micht=might
    *Frae= from
    *Graews= grows
    *Sicht= sight
    *Haun= hand
    *Bricht= bright
    *Gie= give
    *byth=both

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