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.

这首十四行诗是莎士比亚最著名的抒情诗之一，它以对一位年轻男子的赞美开始，并通过对比自然界的短暂和人类情感的永恒，表达了诗人对美的追求和对艺术力量的信心。

诗的第一段将爱人与夏天进行比较，指出尽管夏天美丽，但有其短暂性，狂风会摇落五月的花蕾，夏天的期限也太短。第二段进一步阐述了自然之美不可避免地衰退，无论是太阳还是美好的事物都难逃衰败的命运。然而，第三段则转向诗人自己创作的诗歌，强调这些诗句能够使爱人的美永远留存，甚至超越死亡。

整首诗结构严谨，韵律和谐，通过对立与转折，展现了莎士比亚对于生命、美和时间的独特理解。这种跨越时空的艺术表达，使得这首诗至今仍具有强大的感染力和深远的意义。