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The Sonnets

by William Shakespeare

The Sonnets

Shakespeare's sonnets is a collection of 154 poems in sonnet form written by William Shakespeare that deal with such themes as love, beauty, politics, and mortality.

Source: Shakespeare, W. (1609). The sonnets. In R. G. White (Ed.), The complete works of William Shakespeare. New York: Sully and Kleinteich.

Sonnet 1
From fairest creatures we desire increase
Sonnet 2
When forty winters shall besiege thy brow
Sonnet 3
Look in thy glass and tell the face thou viewest
Sonnet 4
Unthrifty loveliness why dost thou spend
Sonnet 5
Those hours that with gentle work did frame
Sonnet 6
Then let not winter’s ragged hand deface
Sonnet 7
Lo in the orient when the gracious light
Sonnet 8
Music to hear, why hear’st thou music sadly?
Sonnet 9
Is it for fear to wet a widow’s eye
Sonnet 10
For shame deny that thou bear’st love to any
Sonnet 11
As fast as thou shalt wane so fast thou grow’st
Sonnet 12
When I do count the clock that tells the time
Sonnet 13
O that you were your self, but love you are
Sonnet 14
Not from the stars do I my judgement pluck
Sonnet 15
When I consider every thing that grows
Sonnet 16
But wherefore do not you a mightier way
Sonnet 17
Who will believe my verse in time to come
Sonnet 18
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Sonnet 19
Devouring Time blunt thou the lion’s paws
Sonnet 20
A woman’s face with nature’s own hand painted
Sonnet 21
So is it not with me as with that muse
Sonnet 22
My glass shall not persuade me I am old
Sonnet 23
As an unperfect actor on the stage
Sonnet 24
Mine eye hath played the painter and hath stelled
Sonnet 25
Let those who are in favour with their stars
Sonnet 26
Lord of my love, to whom in vassalage
Sonnet 27
Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed
Sonnet 28
How can I then return in happy plight
Sonnet 29
When in disgrace with Fortune and men’s eyes
Sonnet 30
When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
Sonnet 31
Thy bosom is endeared with all hearts
Sonnet 32
If thou survive my well-contented day
Sonnet 33
Full many a glorious morning have I seen
Sonnet 34
Why didst thou promise such a beauteous day
Sonnet 35
No more be grieved at that which thou hast done
Sonnet 36
Let me confess that we two must be twain
Sonnet 37
As a decrepit father takes delight
Sonnet 38
How can my muse want subject to invent
Sonnet 39
O how thy worth with manners may I sing
Sonnet 40
Take all my loves, my love, yea take them all
Sonnet 41
Those pretty wrongs that liberty commits
Sonnet 42
That thou hast her it is not all my grief
Sonnet 43
When most I wink then do mine eyes best see
Sonnet 44
If the dull substance of my flesh were thought
Sonnet 45
The other two, slight air, and purging fire
Sonnet 46
Mine eye and heart are at a mortal war
Sonnet 47
Betwixt mine eye and heart a league is took
Sonnet 48
How careful was I when I took my way
Sonnet 49
Against that time (if ever that time come)
Sonnet 50
How heavy do I journey on the way
Sonnet 51
Thus can my love excuse the slow offence
Sonnet 52
So am I as the rich whose blessed key
Sonnet 53
What is your substance, whereof are you made
Sonnet 54
O how much more doth beauty beauteous seem
Sonnet 55
Not marble, nor the gilded monuments
Sonnet 56
Sweet love renew thy force, be it not said
Sonnet 57
Being your slave what should I do but tend
Sonnet 58
That god forbid, that made me first your slave
Sonnet 59
If there be nothing new, but that which is
Sonnet 60
Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore
Sonnet 61
Is it thy will, thy image should keep open
Sonnet 62
Sin of self-love possesseth all mine eye
Sonnet 63
Against my love shall be as I am now
Sonnet 64
When I have seen by Time’s fell hand defaced
Sonnet 65
Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea
Sonnet 66
Tired with all these for restful death I cry
Sonnet 67
Ah wherefore with infection should he live
Sonnet 68
Thus is his cheek the map of days outworn
Sonnet 69
Those parts of thee that the world’s eye doth view
Sonnet 70
That thou art blamed shall not be thy defect
Sonnet 71
No longer mourn for me when I am dead
Sonnet 72
O lest the world should task you to recite
Sonnet 73
That time of year thou mayst in me behold
Sonnet 74
But be contented when that fell arrest
Sonnet 75
So are you to my thoughts as food to life
Sonnet 76
Why is my verse so barren of new pride?
Sonnet 77
Thy glass will show thee how thy beauties wear
Sonnet 78
So oft have I invoked thee for my muse
Sonnet 79
Whilst I alone did call upon thy aid
Sonnet 80
O how I faint when I of you do write
Sonnet 81
Or I shall live your epitaph to make
Sonnet 82
I grant thou wert not married to my muse
Sonnet 83
I never saw that you did painting need
Sonnet 84
Who is it that says most, which can say more
Sonnet 85
My tongue-tied muse in manners holds her still
Sonnet 86
Was it the proud full sail of his great verse
Sonnet 87
Farewell! thou art too dear for my possessing
Sonnet 88
When thou shalt be disposed to set me light
Sonnet 89
Say that thou didst forsake me for some fault
Sonnet 90
Then hate me when thou wilt, if ever, now
Sonnet 91
Some glory in their birth, some in their skill
Sonnet 92
But do thy worst to steal thy self away
Sonnet 93
So shall I live, supposing thou art true
Sonnet 94
They that have power to hurt, and will do none
Sonnet 95
How sweet and lovely dost thou make the shame
Sonnet 96
Some say thy fault is youth, some wantonness
Sonnet 97
How like a winter hath my absence been
Sonnet 98
From you have I been absent in the spring
Sonnet 99
The forward violet thus did I chide
Sonnet 100
Where art thou Muse that thou forget’st so long
Sonnet 101
O truant Muse what shall be thy amends
Sonnet 102
My love is strengthened though more weak in seeming
Sonnet 103
Alack what poverty my muse brings forth
Sonnet 104
To me fair friend you never can be old
Sonnet 105
Let not my love be called idolatry
Sonnet 106
When in the chronicle of wasted time
Sonnet 107
Not mine own fears, nor the prophetic soul
Sonnet 108
What’s in the brain that ink may character
Sonnet 109
O never say that I was false of heart
Sonnet 110
Alas ‘tis true, I have gone here and there
Sonnet 111
O for my sake do you with Fortune chide
Sonnet 112
Your love and pity doth th’ impression fill
Sonnet 113
Since I left you, mine eye is in my mind
Sonnet 114
Or whether doth my mind being crowned with you
Sonnet 115
Those lines that I before have writ do lie
Sonnet 116
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Sonnet 117
Accuse me thus, that I have scanted all
Sonnet 118
Like as to make our appetite more keen
Sonnet 119
What potions have I drunk of Siren tears
Sonnet 120
That you were once unkind befriends me now
Sonnet 121
‘Tis better to be vile than vile esteemed
Sonnet 122
Thy gift, thy tables, are within my brain
Sonnet 123
No! Time, thou shalt not boast that I do change
Sonnet 124
If my dear love were but the child of state
Sonnet 125
Were’t aught to me I bore the canopy
Sonnet 126
O thou my lovely boy who in thy power
Sonnet 127
In the old age black was not counted fair
Sonnet 128
How oft when thou, my music, music play’st
Sonnet 129
Th’ expense of spirit in a waste of shame
Sonnet 130
My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun
Sonnet 131
Thou art as tyrannous, so as thou art
Sonnet 132
Thine eyes I love, and they as pitying me
Sonnet 133
Beshrew that heart that makes my heart to groan
Sonnet 134
So now I have confessed that he is thine
Sonnet 135
Whoever hath her wish, thou hast thy will
Sonnet 136
If thy soul check thee that I come so near
Sonnet 137
Thou blind fool Love, what dost thou to mine eyes
Sonnet 138
When my love swears that she is made of truth
Sonnet 139
O call not me to justify the wrong
Sonnet 140
Be wise as thou art cruel, do not press
Sonnet 141
In faith I do not love thee with mine eyes
Sonnet 142
Love is my sin, and thy dear virtue hate
Sonnet 143
Lo as a careful huswife runs to catch
Sonnet 144
Two loves I have of comfort and despair
Sonnet 145
Those lips that Love’s own hand did make
Sonnet 146
Poor soul the centre of my sinful earth
Sonnet 147
My love is as a fever longing still
Sonnet 148
O me! what eyes hath love put in my head
Sonnet 149
Canst thou O cruel, say I love thee not
Sonnet 150
O from what power hast thou this powerful might
Sonnet 151
Love is too young to know what conscience is
Sonnet 152
In loving thee thou know’st I am forsworn
Sonnet 153
Cupid laid by his brand and fell asleep
Sonnet 154
The little Love-god lying once asleep
  • Year Published: 1609
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: England
  • Readability:
    • Flesch–Kincaid Level: 11.0
  • Word Count: 19,316
  • Genre: Poetry
  • Keywords: 16th century literature, 17th century literature, age, aging, beauty, british literature, jealousy, poetry, william shakespeare, youth
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