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William ShakespeareA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
It may be argued that the narrator’s ode is not addressed to any specific person but to the experience of love personified in early stages of infatuation. In the third line, the speaker shifts from what seems to be admiration for someone and narrates an experience. The “[r]ough winds” (Line 3) could be the tempests arising during a romance still in bloom, referred to here as “the darling buds of May” (Line 3). Early passions are ephemeral, like “summer’s lease” (Line 4), especially when the experience is “too hot” (Line 5). Thus, what was once unimaginably beautiful—“every fair from fair sometime declines” (Line 7)—can become commonplace as passion quells with time and feelings evolve, expressed here as “chance” or “nature’s changing course” (Line 8). Conversely, love, as a state of being that needn’t any fixed object, is eternal and “shall not fade” (Line 9) or “lose possession of that fair thou ow’st” (Line 10). It will exist for as long as humanity does and will reinforce one’s will to live: “So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, / So long lives this, and this gives life to thee” (Lines 13-14).
By William Shakespeare
All's Well That Ends Well
All's Well That Ends Well
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A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream
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Antony and Cleopatra
Antony and Cleopatra
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As You Like It
As You Like It
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Coriolanus
Coriolanus
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Cymbeline
Cymbeline
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Hamlet
Hamlet
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Henry IV, Part 1
Henry IV, Part 1
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Henry IV, Part 2
Henry IV, Part 2
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Henry V
Henry V
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Henry VIII
Henry VIII
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Henry VI, Part 1
Henry VI, Part 1
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Henry VI, Part 3
Henry VI, Part 3
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Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar
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King John
King John
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King Lear
King Lear
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Love's Labour's Lost
Love's Labour's Lost
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Macbeth
Macbeth
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Measure For Measure
Measure For Measure
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Much Ado About Nothing
Much Ado About Nothing
William Shakespeare