莎士比亚的18首十四行诗，其中最著名的是《Shall I compare thee to a summer's day》。这首诗的格律严谨，分为三节四行诗（quatrain）和一组对句（couplet），韵律为抑扬五步格（Iambic pentameter），韵式为abab cdcd efef gg，这就是所谓的“莎士比亚体”（Shakespearean Sonnet）。
```
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 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.
```
这首诗将心上人比作夏季的一天，赞美了对方的美貌和永恒。诗中提到，尽管夏季美丽但短暂，而心上人却像永恒的夏天一样美丽，不会随时间消逝。这首诗也表达了诗人对美的追求和对永恒爱情的向往。