Expert: Arlene Schulman - 2/8/2009

Question
Do you happen to know the meaning of WS's line "And every fair from fair sometime declines"? Thanks in anticipation.

James

Answer
Hi James,

Sure.

Sonnet 18 is one of Shakespeare's best known.  In it's first line he asks if he should compare his love to a summer's day.  Then, in the next 11 lines he mentions various ways in which they differ. First he says that summer days tend to be extreme, while his love is "temperate."  Then he says that summer is fleeting... and that's where this line comes in.

Here he says "And every fair from fair sometimes declines."  That is, that every beautiful thing eventually becomes less beautiful and ultimately dies (flowers fade, trees lose their leaves and become bare, summer becomes winter, and people become old and die).

But in the final quatrain Shakespeare explains how his love's beauty will never grow old and die, since it is preserved in the words of this poem and will last forever.  

Best,
Arlene (MsDirector)