Question

shall i compare thee to a summers day?
thou art more lovely and more temperate.
rough winds do shake the darling buds 2
of may,
and summers lease hath all too short a
date.
sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
and often is his gold complexion 3
dimmed;
and every fair from fair sometime declines,
by chance, or natures changing course,
untrimmed;
but thy eternal summer shall not fade,
nor lose possession of that fair thou owst, 4
nor shall death brag thou wandrest 5 in his shade,
when in eternal lines to time thou growst. 6
so long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
so long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

1. part b: which detail from the poem best supports the

answer to part a?
○ a. \and summers lease hath all too short a date.\ (line 4)
○ b. \and every fair from fair sometime declines.\ (line 7)
○ c. \but thy eternal summer shall not fade\ (line 9)
○ d. \so long as men can breathe, or eyes can see\ (line 13)

Explanation:

The question asks for a detail from the poem that supports the answer to Part A. In Sonnet 18, the poet is praising the subject's beauty and suggesting it will outlast time. Line 13 ("So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see") emphasizes the timeless nature of the subject's beauty. This line shows that as long as humanity exists (men can breathe, eyes can see), the subject's beauty (and the poem itself) will live on. It directly relates to the idea that the subject's beauty is eternal, which is a central theme of the sonnet.

Answer:

D. "So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see" (Line 13)