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”; Sonnet 130, “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun”; and Sonnet 73, “That time of year thou mayst in me behold.”
Of the 154 sonnets published in 1609, a small number have become part of everyday language, quoted at weddings and funerals, set to music, and borrowed for book titles. This guide collects the fifteen best known, grouped by subject, with the lines that made each one famous and a short explanation of why it has lasted.
At a Glance
Here are the best-known sonnets for quick reference.
Sonnets of Love and Devotion
The most famous of all Shakespeare’s sonnets are love poems, and most of them are addressed to the young man of the Fair Youth sonnets.
Sonnet 18: Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day?
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
The best-known sonnet in English. It begins by comparing the beloved to a summer’s day and then finds the comparison wanting, since summer fades and the beloved, preserved in verse, will not. Its couplet makes one of the boldest claims in poetry: “So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, / So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.” Read our full analysis of Sonnet 18.
Sonnet 116: Let Me Not to the Marriage of True Minds
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
The most popular sonnet at weddings. It defines true love by what it is not: it does not change when circumstances change, and it does not bend to time. The opening echoes the words of the marriage service, and the couplet stakes everything on the definition: “If this be error and upon me proved, / I never writ, nor no man ever loved.” Read our full analysis of Sonnet 116.
Sonnet 29: When in Disgrace With Fortune and Men’s Eyes
When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
A poem about depression and its cure. For eight lines the speaker envies everyone around him and curses his fate. Then he thinks of the one he loves, and his mood rises “like to the lark at break of day arising.” It ends: “For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings / That then I scorn to change my state with kings.” Read our full analysis of Sonnet 29.
Sonnet 30: When to the Sessions of Sweet Silent Thought
When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
I summon up remembrance of things past,
A poem about memory and grief, told in the language of a court session. The speaker calls up old losses and mourns them all over again, until the thought of his friend restores them: “All losses are restor’d and sorrows end.” Its second line gave the English translation of Marcel Proust’s great novel its title, Remembrance of Things Past. Read our full analysis of Sonnet 30.
Sonnet 20: A Woman’s Face With Nature’s Own Hand Painted
A woman’s face with Nature’s own hand painted
Hast thou, the master-mistress of my passion;
The most discussed of the sonnets to the young man. It praises him as having a woman’s beauty without a woman’s changeability, calls him “the master-mistress of my passion,” and ends with a sexual pun. It has become central to every debate about the nature of the speaker’s love for him. Read our full analysis of Sonnet 20.
Sonnets of Time, Death, and Memory
Time is the great enemy in Shakespeare’s sonnets, and his most famous poems about it either mourn what it destroys or claim that poetry can beat it.
Sonnet 73: That Time of Year Thou Mayst in Me Behold
That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
The sequence’s great poem of old age. Three images, late autumn, twilight, and a dying fire, each describe the speaker’s decline, and the fourth line, “Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang,” is among the most admired in English. The couplet turns to the listener: “This thou perceiv’st, which makes thy love more strong, / To love that well which thou must leave ere long.” Read our full analysis of Sonnet 73.
Sonnet 55: Not Marble nor the Gilded Monuments
Not marble nor the gilded monuments
Of princes shall outlive this powerful rhyme,
The boldest statement of poetry’s power in the sequence. Statues topple, wars destroy buildings, and time grinds stone to dust, but the poem will keep the beloved alive until Judgment Day: “You live in this, and dwell in lovers’ eyes.” Read our full analysis of Sonnet 55.
Sonnet 60: Like as the Waves Make Towards the Pebbled Shore
Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore,
So do our minutes hasten to their end;
A poem about the steady march of time, beginning with the image of waves breaking one after another on a beach. Time gives life and then takes it back, mowing everything down with his scythe, and only the poem is left standing: “And yet to times in hope my verse shall stand.” Read our full analysis of Sonnet 60.
Sonnet 71: No Longer Mourn for Me When I Am Dead
No longer mourn for me when I am dead
Than you shall hear the surly sullen bell
The speaker imagines his own death and asks to be forgotten as soon as the funeral bell stops ringing, so that grief will not hurt the one he loves. The request is so selfless that it becomes its own kind of plea to be remembered. Read our full analysis of Sonnet 71.
Sonnet 66: Tired With All These, for Restful Death I Cry
Tired with all these, for restful death I cry:
As, to behold desert a beggar born,
A list of everything wrong with the world, with ten lines in a row beginning with “And,” followed by a single reason to stay alive: “Save that, to die, I leave my love alone.” Dmitri Shostakovich set a Russian translation of it to music in 1942. Read our full analysis of Sonnet 66.
The Darker Sonnets
Some of the most celebrated sonnets are not tender at all, and several come from the Dark Lady sonnets, where love turns bitter, comic, or obsessive.
Sonnet 130: My Mistress’ Eyes Are Nothing Like the Sun
My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips’ red;
Shakespeare’s famous parody of love poetry. Line by line, it refuses every standard compliment, until the couplet declares his love as rare as any woman praised with false comparisons: “And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare / As any she belied with false compare.” Read our full analysis of Sonnet 130.
Sonnet 129: Th’ Expense of Spirit in a Waste of Shame
Th’ expense of spirit in a waste of shame
Is lust in action; and till action, lust
A furious poem about lust: longed for, enjoyed for a moment, and then regretted. Its rush of adjectives and its broken rhythm enact the madness it describes, and its couplet is one of the bleakest in the sequence: “All this the world well knows; yet none knows well / To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell.” Read our full analysis of Sonnet 129.
Sonnet 138: When My Love Swears That She Is Made of Truth
When my love swears that she is made of truth
I do believe her though I know she lies,
A wry portrait of a relationship built on comfortable lies. She pretends to be faithful, he pretends to be young, and each lets the other believe it. It ends on a pun: “Therefore I lie with her and she with me.” Read our full analysis of Sonnet 138.
Sonnet 94: They That Have Power to Hurt and Will Do None
They that have power to hurt, and will do none,
That do not do the thing they most do show,
One of the most puzzling poems in the sequence. It seems to praise people who are cool, controlled, and unmoved, and then warns that the finest things become the worst when they go bad: “Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds.” Read our full analysis of Sonnet 94.
Sonnet 144: Two Loves I Have of Comfort and Despair
Two loves I have, of comfort and despair,
Which like two spirits do suggest me still.
The one poem that brings both of the sequence’s loves together. The young man is the speaker’s good angel, the woman his bad one, and he suspects that she has seduced him away. First printed in 1599, ten years before the rest of the sonnets. Read our full analysis of Sonnet 144.
Where to Start
If you are new to the sonnets, a few of these make a natural first reading.
Begin with Sonnet 18, which shows the basic shape of a Shakespearean sonnet at its clearest, and Sonnet 130, which shows how he could turn that shape into a joke. Then read Sonnet 73 for the power of his imagery, and Sonnet 116 for the power of his argument. After those four, Sonnet 29 and Sonnet 30 show his most characteristic move, the sudden turn from despair to love. Our guide to how to read a Shakespeare sonnet explains how to follow each one step by step.
Common Questions
The questions readers ask most often about Shakespeare’s famous sonnets, answered briefly.
What Is Shakespeare’s Most Famous Sonnet?
Sonnet 18, which begins “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” Sonnet 116 and Sonnet 130 are close behind.
How Many Sonnets Did Shakespeare Write?
154, published together in 1609. A few more sonnets appear inside his plays, including the prologue to Romeo and Juliet.
Which Shakespeare Sonnet Is Best for a Wedding?
Sonnet 116 is the most popular choice, because it describes a love that does not change. Sonnet 18 is also often read.
Who Are Shakespeare’s Sonnets Addressed To?
Sonnets 1 to 126 are addressed mainly to a young man, and Sonnets 127 to 152 mainly concern a woman readers call the Dark Lady. The real identities of both are unknown.
Is Sonnet 18 Written to a Man or a Woman?
It falls among the sonnets addressed to the young man, so most readers take it as written to him, though the poem itself never states the beloved’s sex.
Related Reading
Three guides for reading the sonnets in more depth.