Shakespeare’s Sonnets
Shakespeare’s sonnets were first published together in 1609 by Thomas Thorpe, in a small book titled Shake-speares Sonnets. It collected 154 sonnets, followed by a longer poem, A Lover’s Complaint. Thorpe’s dedication names a “Mr. W. H.” as the sonnets’ “onlie begetter,” and no one knows for certain who that was.
Most of the poems were probably written in the 1590s and early 1600s. In 1598 the writer Francis Meres mentioned Shakespeare’s “sugred Sonnets among his private friends,” and two of them, Sonnets 138 and 144, appeared in print in 1599 in an anthology called The Passionate Pilgrim.
Nearly all of them share one form: fourteen lines of iambic pentameter, arranged as three quatrains and a closing couplet and rhymed ABAB CDCD EFEF GG, the pattern now called the Shakespearean sonnet. The exceptions stand out: Sonnet 99 has fifteen lines, Sonnet 126 has twelve lines in rhyming couplets, and Sonnet 145 is written in shorter, four-beat lines.
Below, all 154 are listed by number and first line, grouped into the four parts of the sequence. Those with a full analysis are linked.
The Four Groups
The sequence falls into four groups, each with its own addressee and concerns.
Procreation Sonnets
The poet urges a young man to marry and have children, so that his beauty survives him.
Start with Sonnet 1Sonnets 18–126Fair Youth
The rest of the poems to the young man: devotion, rivalry, absence and time, and the promise that verse will outlast death.
Read the guideSonnets 127–152Dark Lady
Desire, jealousy and self-disgust, addressed to a mistress who defies the conventions of beauty.
Read the guideAnacreontic
Two closing variations on a Greek epigram about Cupid, his torch and a healing bath.
Find a Sonnet
All 154, fourteen to a row, shaded by group. Numbers in full color have an analysis.
- Procreation1–17
- Fair Youth18–126
- Dark Lady127–152
- Anacreontic153–154
- Analysis coming soon69
The Best-Known Sonnets
Six of the most widely read and quoted poems in the sequence.
- Sonnet 18Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
- Sonnet 116Let me not to the marriage of true minds
- Sonnet 130My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun
- Sonnet 73That time of year thou mayst in me behold
- Sonnet 55Not marble, nor the gilded monuments
- Sonnet 60Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore
Every Sonnet by First Line
The sonnets have no titles, so each is known by its number and its first line. Linked lines have a full analysis.
Procreation Sonnets 1–17
Fair Youth 18–126
Dark Lady 127–152
| 127 | In the old age black was not counted fair |
|---|---|
| 128 | How oft when thou, my music, music play’st |
| 129 | Th’ expense of spirit in a waste of shame |
| 130 | My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun |
| 131 | Thou art as tyrannous, so as thou art |
| 132 | Thine eyes I love, and they, as pitying me |
| 133 | Beshrew that heart that makes my heart to groan |
| 134 | So now I have confessed that he is thine |
| 135 | Whoever hath her wish, thou hast thy Will |
| 136 | If thy soul check thee that I come so near |
| 137 | Thou blind fool, Love, what dost thou to mine eyes |
| 138 | When my love swears that she is made of truth |
| 139 | O, call not me to justify the wrong |
| 140 | Be wise as thou art cruel; do not press |
| 141 | In faith I do not love thee with mine eyes |
| 142 | Love is my sin, and thy dear virtue hate |
| 143 | Lo, as a careful housewife runs to catch |
| 144 | Two loves I have of comfort and despair |
| 145 | Those lips that Love’s own hand did make |
| 146 | Poor soul, the center of my sinful earth |
| 147 | My love is as a fever, longing still |
| 148 | O me, what eyes hath Love put in my head |
| 149 | Canst thou, O cruel, say I love thee not |
| 150 | O, from what power hast thou this powerful might |
| 151 | Love is too young to know what conscience is |
| 152 | In loving thee thou know’st I am forsworn |
Anacreontic 153–154
| 153 | Cupid laid by his brand and fell asleep |
|---|---|
| 154 | The little Love-god lying once asleep |