Shakespeare is being quite clever here. Yes, summer is traditioinlly associated with youth, but look at what he's saying (metaphors and symbols are highlighted; explains follow):
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:
**First the speaker praises the lover, saying she is more lovely than the most pleaseant summer day, but soon the cool winds of autumn will fell the flowers...summer doesn't last long, nor does one's youth.
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;
**Fair skin was prized in Shakespeare's day. The speaker anticipates the loss of this attribute through aging.
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.
**Finally, the speaker concludes that the beloved is blessed with 'eternal summer' in his eyes, and that even Death won't be able to take away the memory of their love.
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