Shakespeare's Sonnets

A collection of 154 poems by William Shakespeare, published in 1609. Their themes are love, beauty, poetry and the effects of time on all three. They were probably written over a period of several years, early in Shakespeare's literary career.

Almost all are in the verse form afterward known as Shakespearean Sonnets and deal in large part with a beautiful young man, a rival poet and a "Dark Lady" whose identities have been the subject of much debate. Some have suggested that the young man is the same as the "W.H." referred to in the publisher's dedication, possibly William Herbert[?], Earl of Pembroke, a patron of the stage. The rival poet is sometimes identified with Christopher Marlowe. However, no hard evidence that any of the sonnets' characters have real-life counterparts. The narrator himself could even be a fictional device and not a reflection of Shakespeare's feeling.

Shakespeare's repeated declarations of love for the young man suggest bisexuality to some, although others see them as supreme expressions of Platonic love[?], deliberately contrasted with the carnal attractiveness of the Dark Lady.

Quotations (With Number of Sonnet)

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. (18)

When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes

I all alone beweep my outcast state,

And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,

And look upon myself, and curse my fate... (29)

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun. (130)

I have sworn thee fair, and thought thee bright,

Who art as black as hell, as dark as night. (147)

External link: http://www.shakespeares-sonnets.com/