On my walks in Lincoln Park, one of my favorite destinations is the Shakespeare garden at the south end of the ponds. Here a little path meanders through plantings of (allegedly) all the flowers mentioned by Shakespeare. On four boulders are mounted plaques bearing the words of his Sonnet #18. There are a few benches to pause upon, and often somebody reading a book. Not far away is the statue of Shakespeare. He has his back turned to the city and is regarding flower beds. 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. Photograph of open workbook by Murky at flicker.com: "These are the notes I made on Shakespeare's 18th sonnet for my Open University course 'A103: Introduction to the Humanities'."