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What three problems does the poet find with a summer's day in Sonnet 18, lines 1-4?

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperature:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date

Quick answer:

In "Sonnet 18," the poet identifies three problems with a summer's day: it is too severe, with harsh temperatures and unpredictable weather; it can be too rough, as rough winds shake the delicate buds of May; and it is too brief, with summer's lease being all too short. In contrast, the poet's beloved is more temperate, lovely, and enduring.

Expert Answers

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First, the speaker says of his beloved that she is more lovely and more "temperate" than a summer's day. Temperate can mean the use of restraint. The speaker then goes on to say that the sun can be too hot or too hazy in its blazing heat: 

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, 

And often is his gold complexion dimm'd; (5-6) 

Therefore, a summer's day might be too hot or too hazy and humid; whereas, the speaker's beloved is more temperate, restrained, not tending to go to either of those extremes. The other complaint the speaker has is that summer does not last long: it "hath all too short a date." The speaker adds that the "summer" of his beloved (the beauty of her life and/or the memory of it) is eternal. So, summer is fleeting relative to the eternity by which his beloved will be remembered: even if it is in the "lines" of the sonnet ("this") itself: 

Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st 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. 

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