Question

\sonnet 18\
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 too short a date:
sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
and often is his gold complexion dimm’d,
and every fair from fair sometime declines,
by chance, or nature’s changing course untrimm’d:
but thy eternal summer shall not fade,
nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
when in eternal lines to time thou grow’st,
so long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
so long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
but thy eternal summer shall not fade,
nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
when in eternal lines to time thou grow’st,
so long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
so long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
what is the central idea of these lines?
attraction, love, and mild summer
days are all fleeting and soon
disappear.
the author’s loved one will overcome
physical death and summer is eternal.
beauty is not defined by the outward
appearance, but by the character
inside.
the author’s loved one will always
remain beautiful in the lines of this
poem.

Explanation:

1. Analyze the first option: The poem says the loved one's "eternal summer" (beauty) won't fade, so the idea of things being fleeting is wrong. Eliminate this.
2. Analyze the second option: The poem doesn't say summer is eternal in a literal sense, but that the loved one's beauty is preserved in the poem. Also, "overcome physical death" is not the main point. Eliminate this.
3. Analyze the third option: The poem doesn't discuss outward vs. inner beauty. Eliminate this.
4. Analyze the fourth option: Lines like "thy eternal summer shall not fade" and "So long lives this, and this gives life to thee" show that the loved one's beauty is preserved forever in the poem's lines. This matches.

Answer:

The author’s loved one will always remain beautiful in the lines of this poem.