Sonnet 18???

As some of you may know, I'm really digging on Mr. Gilmour's version of this sonnet. Very "classy" for lack of a better word. Anywho, I was wondering if any of you may now what exactly Shakespeare was writing about? Or is there somewhere I can check on-line to find it. I've looked but have gotten nothing except what one person thinks what it is about. Me, I think it is about a woman that he loves, or someone (a loved one) who has past away. Any help would be wonderful. Thanks!
~Brian~

I'm sure I am supposed to know about this, but Sonnet 18 - one of my own personal favourites from the poet, Billy S - by DAVID Gilmour?

More confusion results after consulting the trusty, yet mildly apocryphal Pink Floyd Encyclopedia because no mention of it appears there. It must be new. Did he perform it Live this year?

If anyone is unfamiliar with Sonnet 18, (line 4 is particularly tricky)...:

XVIII
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.

I agree with your evaluation, floydboy75 but only the former part; not automatically assuming the inspirator was deceased.

Floyd on,
Byron

p.s.
Sorry to go on
...but re-reading it, I realise it's actually a time capsule love poem, a transtemporal sonnet to a loved one of whatever flavour, so "that fair" can live forever.

It was to a patron of his, the Duke of Somerset, I think. Shakespeare had homosexual leanings and he was quite cross when his beloved patron married someone else.

Ooooer, missus! The Bard! The Bard!

Aw, my dearest Byron, don't cry

cheers

No fear, me dear. Crocodile tears, these here.

whoa you could be one of those guys that rhymes a lot.

Just for the record, my darling Byron, this version of the Sonnet appears on the DVD, as one of the extras.

I believe this is what he performed for the 'When Love Speaks' event in London after the shows last January. I'm not sure if he sang it or not, it seems that someone else did, but I'm probably incorrect.

Sadly, I wasn't there to witness it for myself.

Cheers!

GeeDub#1

Forgive my ignorance. Did Billy S' original have music, or did BDG write some for it?

I gotta get that DVD dammit.

Thanks to all for the info.
Driven, I don't know if Mr. Shakespeare had music for it, but on the DVD it has Mr. Gilmour singing with music by Michael Kamen. Sounds like very simple piano, sort of like on High Hopes.
BoaB, from what I got off a web site, line 4 roughly means "And summer is far too short.".
Never knew ol' Billy leaned that way. I learn something new everyday!
I'd still like to get an "official" meaning of it though. But all of your input was great. Thanks again.
Also, I signed up for a newsletter from "www.neptunepinkfloyd.co.uk/" to download this Sonnet 18 from the Gilmour DVD. If anyone is interested to hear it.
~Brian~

I believe that Michael Kamen wrote the music as an original composition for the "When Love Speaks" event. Or maybe he had it lying around the house and he realized it would work.

Either way, I believe that was the genesis of this particular piece.

Cheers!

GeeDub#1

Sounds good to me anyway. The serene setting helped too.

Thanks Brian and GW.

Yes, I knew that, but what I meant is the line is a bit of a tongue-twister.

Did you want literal meaning, line for line, or something more?

You don't set sonnets to music when you write dozens of them. They'd all sound the same.