William Shakespeare in "Sonnet 18"--"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?"--speaks as the poet observing the beauty of the person to whom he is speaking, and inherent in this "speech" is the method of the poet and the poet's belief in the power of the poem he is writing. The sonnet begins as a question, noted in the first line quoted as a title above, and the poet follows the simile in this question with other imagery which compares the person to nature, to the best parts of the day and the best features of the natural world. In structure, the first eight lines constitute one idea as the poet compares the person to the summer day and notes the different aspects of that day which illuminate how the poet feels about the person or which are offered as not coming up to the same level of beauty and vitality as the person:
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
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