Sonnets
All 154 of Shakespeare’s sonnets in full, with clear analysis of the language, themes, and ideas — from the Fair Youth sequence to the Dark Lady poems.
Sonnets
Sonnet 6: Then Let Not Winter’s Ragged Hand Deface
Sonnet 6 presses the urgency of Sonnet 5 to its logical conclusion — if beauty must be preserved, the only vessel worthy of it is a child.
Sonnets
Sonnet 5: Those Hours, That with Gentle Work Did Frame
Sonnet 5 is the first poem in the sequence to make time itself the subject rather than the young man's failure to act against it.
Sonnets
Sonnet 129: The Expense of Spirit in a Waste of Shame
Sonnet 129 is the most violent poem in the sequence — a controlled explosion of self-disgust at the machinery of lust.
Sonnets
Sonnet 30: When to the Sessions of Sweet Silent Thought
Sonnet 30 turns the act of remembering into a form of grief, only to find that the thought of one person is enough to restore everything that was…
Sonnets
Sonnet 4: Unthrifty Loveliness, Why Dost Thou Spend
Sonnet 4 is not a poem about beauty — it is a legal brief against a man who has mismanaged someone else's assets.
Sonnets
Sonnet 3: Look in Thy Glass, and Tell the Face Thou Viewest
Sonnet 3 is the first poem in the sequence to look backward — and that change of direction is what makes it different from everything that came before.
Sonnets
Sonnet 58: That God Forbid, That Made Me First Your Slave
Sonnet 58 is a performance of patience — and the couplet is where the performance breaks.
Sonnets
Sonnet 76: Why Is My Verse So Barren of New Pride
Read Sonnet 76 with the full poem and analysis exploring Shakespeare’s reflection on poetic style, originality, and constant love.
Sonnets
Sonnet 92: But Do Thy Worst to Steal Thyself Away
Read Sonnet 92 with the full poem and analysis exploring Shakespeare’s themes of love, insecurity, and emotional dependence.
Sonnets
Sonnet 110: Alas, ’Tis True, I Have Gone Here and There
Read Sonnet 110 with a clear analysis exploring Shakespeare’s themes of regret, wandering, and the rediscovery of true love.