Question

shall i compare thee to a summers day?
thou art more lovely and more temperate:
rough winds do shake the darling buds 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 dimmd;
and every fair from fair sometime declines,
by chance, or natures changing course untrimmd:
but thy eternal summer shall not fade,
nor lose possession of that fair thou owst,
nor shall death brag thou wanderst in his shade,
when in eternal lines to time thou growst,
so long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
so long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
read the first stanza from \sonnet 18\.
shall i compare thee to a summers day?
thou art more lovely and more temperate:
rough winds do shake the darling buds of may,
and summers lease hath all too short a date:
the rhyme scheme of this stanza is a

Explanation:

A sonnet typically has a rhyme scheme. In English sonnets (like Shakespearean sonnets), the first stanza (quatrain) often follows a specific pattern. For a Shakespearean sonnet, the rhyme scheme of the first quatrain (stanza) is usually ABAB. Let's check the end - words of the lines:

• Line 1: "day?" (let's call this A)
• Line 2: "temperate" (B)
• Line 3: "May" (A, rhymes with "day?")
• Line 4: "date" (B, rhymes with "temperate")

Answer:

ABAB