Saturday Rave: Shall I compare thee by William Shakespeare.

It was pretty blustery up on Ivinghoe Beacon yesterday. The hawthorn buds were being shaken about like anything.

I thought: I hope my hat doesn't blow off.

Shall I compare thee to a Summer's day? is the first line of Shakespeare's sonnet Number 18.

The word sonnet tells you that it's a poem with fourteen lines. It also gives you a clue as you which lines are going to rhyme (there are two traditional sonnet rhyming schemes to choose from), how many syllables will be in each line (ten), and whether the words have a galloping or walking rhythm (walking).

Here's the first printed version of this famous poem

The poem describes the fleeting glories of an English summer (Rough windes do fhake the darling buds of Maie), the less fleeting glory of human beauty, and last of all, triumphantly, the long, long years that art, in the form of this sonnet, will keep beauty in the mind of the world.

All that in fourteen lines. All that from a blustery May day.

The man must have been a genius or something.

Word To Use Today: darling. This word comes from the Old English dēorling, which means a little dear.