Sonnet 18

1. C. The speaker says that, unlike the poem’s subject, summer may be “[s]ometime too hot” (Line 5), that its duration has “all too short a date” (Line 4), and that it is afflicted by “[r]ough winds” (Line 3). The speaker says nothing about summer being dull or boring.

2. B. Although the wording may seem strange to modern readers, the speaker means to say that everything “fair” (having beauty) declines from this state over time.

3. D. The speaker attributes beauty’s decline to “chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d” (Line 8).

4. B. The only mention of death comes when the speaker says that it shall not brag that the subject wanders in its shade (Line 11).

5. the writing of this sonnet