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 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.

这首十四行诗的大意是诗人将心爱之人与夏日进行对比，但发现夏日虽然美丽却短暂易逝，而他所爱之人则拥有永恒之美。尽管自然界的美好会随时间消逝，但诗人的文字能够赋予爱人不朽的生命力。只要世间还有人呼吸、有眼睛观看，这首诗便会流传下去，并让爱人永存于世人心中。这并非对诗歌技巧或情感表达的分析，而是对其核心意义的一种简要说明。