Through a lyric poem there is expression of ones thoughts and feelings. An example of, a lyric poem is William Shakespeare's "Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day," in which the speaker expresses feeling towards a lover. There are several types of lyric poems.
Evidence found in the text, Literature: A Pocket Anthology, lead to this particular poem being sonnet. This poem specifically is called an English or Shakespearean sonnet. It is known that a Shakespearean sonnet has fourteen lines with three four line stanza which are quatrains and a concluding with rhyming pairs called couplets(65). The rhyme scheme of a sonnet is always abab, cdcd, efef found in the quatrains and the couplets are arranged gg. These characteristics of the sonnet are seen in "Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day." The rhyme scheme of the poem is noted when looking at the last word in each line for instance; day (a), temperate (b), may (a), date (b) and so on in the quatrains ending with the couplets see (g) and thee (g). These words also have a masculine rhyme because the last syllable of every other rhymes. Another characteristic of a sonnet and is noticed in this English sonnet is that all fourteen lines are in iambic pentameter, which means all the lines have five iambs.
The speaker in the poem compares a summer's day to the relationship of the couple. Like a summer's day the relationship starts out cool and comfortable unfortunately as the hot day or the relationship progresses it may seem to get unbearable. In the poem there is reference to the progression when the speaker says" Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May/ And Summers leases hath all too short a date." (9-14) The speaker also lets us know that even if the relationship has bad times, he will always love the times they have shared and he will sure she/he will always be loved by immortalizing her in the poem. The speaker let us know this in the last six lines of the poem, "But thy eternal summer shall not fade/ Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st/ Nor shall death brag thou wand"est in his shade/ When eternal lines to time thou grow'st/ So long as man can breath of eyes can see/ So long live this and the give life to thee.