William Shakespeare
The Sonnets
TITLE PAGE OF FIRST EDITION
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Shakespeare's Sonnets were first published in 1609. The edition, which may have been printed without Shakespeare's permission,
contained 154 sonnets, mostly of fourteen lines, with a abab cdcd efef gg rhyming structure. The volume was dedicated to a "Mr W.H.", who was perhaps Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, to whom
Shakespeare dedicated his narrative poems Venus and Adonis and The Rape Of Lucrece.
The sonnets cover a range of subjects, from love and friendship to death and immortality. They are perhaps the greatest collection of
poems ever written, unparalleled in their beauty and sophistication.
Here you can read some of Shakespeare's most popular sonnets:
SONNET 1 - From fairest creatures we desire increase
SONNET 18 - Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
SONNET 27 - Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed
SONNET 29 - When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes
SONNET 30 - When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
SONNET 73 - That time of year thou mayst in me behold
SONNET 104 - To me, fair friend, you never can be old
SONNET 116 - Let me not to the marriage of true minds
SONNET 130 - My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
SONNET 138 - When my love swears that she is made of truth