William Shakespeare is considered to be one of, if not the, most important English-language writers of all time. His plays and poems are read all over the world. Read more about William Shakespeare.
Some of Shakespeare’s most famous sonnets include Sonnet 18: Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?, Sonnet 116: Let me not to the marriage of true minds, and Sonnet 130: My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun.
‘Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day?,’ also known as ‘Sonnet 18,’ is one of the Fair Youth poems. It is addressed to a mysterious male figure that scholars have been unable to identify.
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:
Read Shakespeare’s Sonnet 73, ‘That time of year thou mayst in me behold,’ with a summary and complete analysis of the poem.
That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
Sonnet 116: ‘Let me not to the marriage of true minds’ by William Shakespeare is easily one of the most recognizable sonnets of all time. It explores the nature of love and what “true love” is.
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
‘Carpe Diem’ by William Shakespeare is a love song from Twelfth Night, sung by Feste the clown/fool. It’s about love and youth.
O mistress mine, where are you roaming?
O stay and hear! your true-love's coming
That can sing both high and low;
Trip no further, pretty sweeting,
‘Sonnet 138,’ also known as ‘When my love swears that she is made of truth,’ is a poem about the lies at the heart of a relationship. It depicts the necessity of two lovers misleading one another.
When my love swears that she is made of truth,
I do believe her though I know she lies,
That she might think me some untutored youth,
Unlearned in the world's false subtleties.
‘Wolsey’s Farewell to His Greatness’ by William Shakespeare is a set of lines found in Act III Scene 2 of Henry VIII, a famous history play. The lines are spoken by Cardinal Wolsey, one of the King’s closest advisors.
Farewell! a long farewell, to all my greatness!
This is the state of man: to-day he puts forth
The tender leaves of hope, to-morrow blossoms,
And bears his blushing honours thick upon him:
Sonnet 151 navigates the complexities of love and lust in the speaker’s romantic relationship with the dark lady.
Love is too young to know what conscience is,
Yet who knows not conscience is born of love?
Then, gentle cheater, urge not my amiss,
Lest guilty of my faults thy sweet self prove:
Sonnet 142, ‘Love is my sin, and thy dear virtue hate,’ explores the dynamics of desire and morality in the speaker’s relationship.
Love is my sin, and thy dear virtue hate,
Hate of my sin, grounded on sinful loving:
O! but with mine compare thou thine own state,
And thou shalt find it merits not reproving;
‘How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!’ by William Shakespeare is an excerpt from The Merchant of Venice, a famous Shakespearean play. The lines are found in Act V Scene 1 and are spoken by Lorenzo.
How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!
Here will we sit and let the sounds of music
Creep in our ears: soft stillness and the night
Become the touches of sweet harmony.
‘A Fairy Song’ by William Shakespeare features in the well-loved play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. It’s sung by a fairy and describes their work.
Over hill, over dale,
Thorough bush, thorough brier,
Over park, over pale,
Thorough flood, thorough fire!
‘All the world’s a stage’ is a well-known monologue found in William Shakespeare’s ‘As You Like It’. This speech of Jaques explores the seven ages of man and their implications.
All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
‘Double, Double Toil and Trouble’ appears in the tragedy of ‘Macbeth’ by William Shakespeare. It is one of the “Song of the Witches” that appears in Act 4, Scene 1 of the play.
Round about the cauldron go;
In the poison’d entrails throw.
Toad, that under cold stone
Days and nights has thirty-one
‘Fear no more the heat o’ the sun’ is a song from the play Cymbeline, sung by Guiderius and Argiragus, the sons of Cymbeline. The song explores the reasons that death may not be so bad.
Fear no more the heat o’ the sun,
Nor the furious winter’s rages;
Thou thy worldly task hast done,
Home art gone, and ta’en thy wages:
‘Friends and Flatterers’ by William Shakespeare is a powerful poem about friendship and how to spot those who are true and false.
Every one that flatters thee
Is no friend in misery.
Words are easy, like the wind;
Faithful friends are hard to find:
‘Is This A Dagger Which I See Before Me’ is a soliloquy from Macbeth. It is one of the most famous soliloquies from Shakespeare, and it reveals Macbeth’s murderous plan to become to King.
Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.
I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.
Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible
From Henry V, ‘Once More Unto The Breach,’ without doubt, one of Shakespeare’s most rousing and iconic speeches. It has inspired motivational speeches from everywhere from Independence Day and Star Trek and remains a masterclass in rhetoric language to this day.
Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
Or close the wall up with our English dead.
In peace there's nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility:
‘Our revels now are ended’ is the name given to one of the best-known speeches from William Shakespeare’s The Tempest. It can be found in Act IV, Scene 1, and is spoken by Prospero.
Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
‘Romeo and Juliet Act I Prologue’ is a narrator spoken sonnet from ‘Romeo and Juliet’ which sets the scene, and alludes to events to come in Shakespeare’s world famous play.
Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
‘Romeo and Juliet Act I Scene 5 Sonnet’ is the second of three sonnets to appear in the famous play. In the poem, Romeo is likened to a pilgrim, while Juliet is the holy site awaiting Romeo to deliver his “prayer”.
If I profane with my unworthiest hand
This holy shrine, the gentle fine is this:
My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand
To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.
Romeo and Juliet Act II Prologue’ is the third of three sonnets that appear within within Shakespeare’s best-known play. The unseen narrator speaks to the audience of the family dynamics at play, and of Romeo and Juliet’s new love, taking the place of old desires.
Now old desire doth in his death-bed lie,
And young affection gapes to be his heir;
That fair for which love groaned for and would die,
With tender Juliet matched is now not fair.
Shakespeare’s first sonnet, ‘From fairest creatures we desire increase,’ serves to introduce many of the themes which echo through the rest of the collection.
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;
Read Shakespeare’s Sonnet 10, also known as ‘For shame deny that thou bear’st love to any’, with a deep dive analysis into the poem.
For shame deny that thou bear'st love to any,
Who for thy self art so unprovident.
Grant, if thou wilt, thou art beloved of many,
But that thou none lov'st is most evident:
Read Shakespeare’s Sonnet 100, ‘Where art thou, Muse, that thou forget’st so long,’ with a summary and complete analysis of the poem.
Where art thou Muse that thou forget'st so long,
To speak of that which gives thee all thy might?
Spend'st thou thy fury on some worthless song,
Darkening thy power to lend base subjects light?
Read Shakespeare’s Sonnet 101, ‘O truant Muse what shall be thy amends,’ with a summary and complete analysis of the poem.
O truant Muse what shall be thy amends
For thy neglect of truth in beauty dyed?
Both truth and beauty on my love depends;
So dost thou too, and therein dignified.
Read Shakespeare’s Sonnet 102, ‘My love is strengthen’d, though more weak in seeming,’ with a summary and complete analysis of the poem.
My love is strengthened, though more weak in seeming;
I love not less, though less the show appear;
That love is merchandized, whose rich esteeming,
The owner's tongue doth publish every where.
Read Shakespeare’s Sonnet 103, ‘Alack! what poverty my Muse brings forth,’ with a summary and complete analysis of the poem.
Alack! what poverty my Muse brings forth,
That having such a scope to show her pride,
The argument all bare is of more worth
Than when it hath my added praise beside!
Read Shakespeare’s Sonnet 104, ‘To me, fair friend, you never can be old,’ with a summary and complete analysis of the poem.
To me, fair friend, you never can be old,
For as you were when first your eye I ey'd,
Such seems your beauty still. Three winters cold,
Have from the forests shook three summers' pride,
Read Shakespeare’s Sonnet 105, ‘Let not my love be called idolatry,’ with a summary and complete analysis of the poem.
Let not my love be called idolatry,
Nor my beloved as an idol show,
Since all alike my songs and praises be
To one, of one, still such, and ever so.
Read Shakespeare’s Sonnet 106, ‘When in the chronicle of wasted time,’ with a summary and complete analysis of the poem.
When in the chronicle of wasted time
I see descriptions of the fairest wights,
And beauty making beautiful old rhyme,
In praise of ladies dead and lovely knights,
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