The Sonnets

These 154 poems, first printed in 1609, are the most famous sonnet sequence in English. Most of the first 126 are addressed to a beautiful young man: at first the poet urges him to marry and have children, then promises him that verse will defeat time ('So long lives this, and this gives life to thee'). The later sonnets turn to a 'dark lady', and to a love that is sensual, jealous and full of self-disgust. Among them are Sonnet 18, 'Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?', Sonnet 116 on love that does not alter, and Sonnet 130, 'My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun'.

Shakespeare wrote the sonnets over many years, and their mysterious dedication to 'Mr. W. H.' and the real identity of the young man and the dark lady have been argued over for centuries. Each poem follows the English form of three quatrains and a closing couplet, and they are best read slowly, a few at a time and aloud. Shakespeare's love tragedy Romeo and Juliet also contains sonnets.

William Shakespeare (1564–1616), born in Stratford-upon-Avon, actor, playwright and shareholder of a London company, wrote about thirty-seven plays and 154 sonnets.

The tragedies Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello and King Lear, and comedies such as A Midsummer Night's Dream, are here in full, with hundreds of editions and studies from HathiTrust.