Sonnet 18 deserves its fame because it is one of the most beautifully written verses in the English language. Its endurance comes from Shakespeare's ability to capture the essence of love so succinctly.

After much debate it is now accepted that the subject of the poem is 'male'. In 1640, John Benson a publisher, released a highly inaccurate edition of Shakespeare's sonnets in which he edited out the young man and replaced 'he' with 'she'.

When Edmond Malone returned to the quarto and re-edited the poems, scholars soon realised that the first 126 sonnets were all addressed to a young man, sparking debates about Shakespeare's sexuality. The nature of this relationship is highly ambiguous and it is impossible to tell whether he was describing a platonic or erotic love.

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

And summer's lease hath all to short a date:

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And oft is his gold complexion dimm'd:

And every fair from fair declines,

By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;

But thy eternal summer shall not fade

Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;

Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,

When in eternal lines to time thou growest:

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,

So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

The debate even today wages on; Was it a man or was it a woman?

More Info: en.m.wikipedia.org