The rhyming couplet comprises the last two lines of Sonnet
18, lines 13 and 14.
So long as men can breathe or eyes can
see,
So long lives this and this gives life to
thee.
In the couplet, the
sonneteer is saying that as long "as men can breathe or eyes can see," Sonnet 18 will
live and be read, and, in so being, will immortalize the subject of the sonnet, which is
the speaker's beloved. [Some assert that Shakespeare is writing of his own loves while
others suggest Shakespeare is simply writing a sonnet cycle that is in many respects not
autobiographical.]
The first two quatrains answer the introductory
rhetorical question: "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" Line 3 and 4 of the first
quatrain and lines 5 through 8 of the second quatrain explain the "Why" of the implied
"No, because" that comprises the rhetorical question’s answer in line 2: "Thou art more
lovely and more temperate" than a summer's day.
The essential "why,"
or explanation, offered in lines 3 through 8 is that while winds, sun, and "nature's
changing course" may destroy summer's beauty (turning it in fact to autumn), nothing
will destroy the beauty of his beloved. The "because" that follows the first two
quatrains is in the third quatrain and is that the sonnet will immortalize the beloved’s
beauty and life.
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