Shakespeare's Sonnets

Shakespeare's Sonnets

Shakespeare's Sonnets is a collection of 154 poems written by William Shakespeare. The poems are divided into two sections: the Fair Youth sequence (sonnets 1-126) and the Dark Lady sequence (sonnets 127-154). The Fair Youth sequence is addressed to a young man, while the Dark Lady sequence is addressed to a mysterious woman. The poems explore themes of love, beauty, mortality, and time. They are written in a variety of poetic forms, including sonnets, rhyming couplets, and quatrains. The poems are often considered to be some of the most beautiful and powerful works of English literature.

By William Shakespeare · First published 1609 · Genre: Poetry, Drama, Romance · 60 chapters · 17,576 words

First lines

From fairest creatures we desire increase, That thereby beauty's rose might never die, But as the riper should by time decease, His tender heir might bear his memory: But thou contracted to thine own bright eyes, Feed'st thy light's flame with self-substantial fuel, Making a famine where abundance lies, Thy self thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel: Thou that art now the world's fresh ornament, And only herald to the gaudy spring, Within thine own bud buriest thy content, And tender churl mak'st waste in niggarding: Pity the world, or else this glutton be, To eat the world's due, by the grave and thee.

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Shakespeare's Sonnets is listed on Textopian as a poem by William Shakespeare, dated 1609 CE.

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Early modern and Elizabethan, 1500-1600 · English · English drama · English poetry · Poetry · Renaissance poetry · Sonnets · age · art · beauty · beauty's · day

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More by William Shakespeare