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English Literature / Unit 7   ENL 0604 short lesson, about 20 seconds

Sonnet 18

Captions available

The idea

"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" The speaker finds summer too short and changeable for the comparison, and ends by promising that the beloved's "eternal summer shall not fade," because the poem itself will last as long as men can breathe and read.

In practice

The beloved outlasts summer through the poem.

Where people slip

The poem praises its own power to preserve.

Your place on the trail

Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.

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