William Shakespeare

Portrait of William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare 1564–1616
1564Born

William Shakespeare was born in 1564 and died 1616. Called 'The Bard of Avon', this English poet and playwright wrote over 100 Sonnets and a number of immortal plays.

From readers

What readers say about William Shakespeare

  1. On Sonnet 18: Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

    “one must be aware of the fact, that Shakespeare was a man, who constantly self celebrated himself - it led to many critics saying that the sonnets were dedicated to "william himself". this poem is a perfect example of his supreme self celebration. an apparent reading may seem that the sonnet is…”

  2. On Sonnet 116: Let me not to the marriage of true minds

    “yes the poem is very truely said as marriage is not love but love is the marriage it is something that never fades with the time nor even with any ups and down of the struggle of life.it will grow deeper and deeper till the end even after the death. the bond grow stronger with stroms of life with…”

  3. On Sonnet 130: My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun

    “What I think is that the poet is simply satirising the ideas of Elizabethan soneteers whose definition of a beautiful woman is unrealistic and false. I mean that's what Shakespeare is trying to explain. He loves his mistress the way she is and finds it quite normal that she is not as beautiful as…”

  4. On Sonnet 62: Sin of self-love possesseth all mine eye

    “Well....I haven't been here in awhile... (Obviously)...duh!!!! My collection of poems is almost complete... Look for the poem collection entitled "My love Mrs. Naud" in your local dollar store... It's great!!!! Thanks again My love and inspiration...Thanks... you "possesseth" all my heart”

  5. On Sonnet 20: A woman's face with Nature's own hand painted

    “I've never read this sonnet,I felt in love with the words.. Even though is very difficult for me to understand since Iam still learning English...I still just love the way he express him self express how he fells about woman.. And he does that with alot a respect,that realy got my attention! Bye…”

Where readers gather

Most discussed

  1. No. 130Sonnet 130: My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun10 comments
  2. No. 18Sonnet 18: Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?6 comments
  3. No. 62Sonnet 62: Sin of self-love possesseth all mine eye3 comments
  4. No. 116Sonnet 116: Let me not to the marriage of true minds2 comments
  5. No. 141Sonnet 141: In faith, I do not love thee with mine eyes2 comments
  6. No. 145Sonnet 145: Those lips that Love's own hand did make2 comments
  7. No. 20Sonnet 20: A woman's face with Nature's own hand painted2 comments
  8. No. 55Sonnet 55: Not marble, nor the gilded monuments2 comments
  9. No. 73Sonnet 73: That time of year thou mayst in me behold2 comments
  10. No. 91Sonnet 91: Some glory in their birth, some in their skill2 comments

All 155 poems

The Sonnets · 1609 · 154 poems
  1. 1Sonnet 1: From fairest creatures we desire increase
  2. 2Sonnet 2: When forty winters shall besiege thy brow
  3. 3Sonnet 3: Look in thy glass, and tell the face thou viewest
  4. 4Sonnet 4: Unthrifty loveliness, why dost thou spend
  5. 5Sonnet 5: Those hours, that with gentle work did frame
  6. 6Sonnet 6: Then let not winter's ragged hand deface
  7. 7Sonnet 7: Lo, in the orient when the gracious light
  8. 8Sonnet 8: Music to hear, why hear'st thou music sadly?
  9. 9Sonnet 9: Is it for fear to wet a widow's eye
  10. 10Sonnet 10: For shame, deny that thou bear'st love to any
  11. 11Sonnet 11: As fast as thou shalt wane, so fast thou grow'st
  12. 12Sonnet 12: When I do count the clock that tells the time
  13. 13Sonnet 13: O, that you were your self! But, love, you are1
  14. 14Sonnet 14: Not from the stars do I my judgement pluck
  15. 15Sonnet 15: When I consider every thing that grows
  16. 16Sonnet 16: But wherefore do not you a mightier way
  17. 17Sonnet 17: Who will believe my verse in time to come
  18. 18Sonnet 18: Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?6
  19. 19Sonnet 19: Devouring Time blunt thou the lion's paws
  20. 20Sonnet 20: A woman's face with Nature's own hand painted2
  21. 21Sonnet 21: So is it not with me as with that muse
  22. 22Sonnet 22: My glass shall not persuade me I am old
  23. 23Sonnet 23: As an unperfect actor on the stage
  24. 24Sonnet 24: Mine eye hath played the painter and hath stelled
  25. 25Sonnet 25: Let those who are in favour with their stars
  26. 26Sonnet 26: Lord of my love, to whom in vassalage
  27. 27Sonnet 27: Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed
  28. 28Sonnet 28: How can I then return in happy plight
  29. 29Sonnet 29: When in disgrace with Fortune and men's eyes1
  30. 30Sonnet 30: When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
  31. 31Sonnet 31: Thy bosom is endearèd with all hearts
  32. 32Sonnet 32: If thou survive my well-contented day
  33. 33Sonnet 33: Full many a glorious morning have I seen
  34. 34Sonnet 34: Why didst thou promise such a beauteous day1
  35. 35Sonnet 35: No more be grieved at that which thou hast done
  36. 36Sonnet 36: Let me confess that we two must be twain
  37. 37Sonnet 37: As a decrepit father takes delight
  38. 38Sonnet 38: How can my Muse want subject to invent
  39. 39Sonnet 39: O, how thy worth with manners may I sing
  40. 40Sonnet 40: Take all my loves, my love, yea, take them all1
  41. 41Sonnet 41: Those pretty wrongs that liberty commits1
  42. 42Sonnet 42: That thou hast her, it is not all my grief1
  43. 43Sonnet 43: When most I wink, then do mine eyes best see
  44. 44Sonnet 44: If the dull substance of my flesh were thought
  45. 45Sonnet 45: The other two, slight air and purging fire
  46. 46Sonnet 46: Mine eye and heart are at a mortal war
  47. 47Sonnet 47: Betwixt mine eye and heart a league is took
  48. 48Sonnet 48: How careful was I, when I took my way
  49. 49Sonnet 49: Against that time, if ever that time come
  50. 50Sonnet 50: How heavy do I journey on the way
  51. 51Sonnet 51: Thus can my love excuse the slow offence
  52. 52Sonnet 52: So am I as the rich whose blessèd key
  53. 53Sonnet 53: What is your substance, whereof are you made
  54. 54Sonnet 54: O, how much more doth beauty beauteous seem
  55. 55Sonnet 55: Not marble, nor the gilded monuments2
  56. 56Sonnet 56: Sweet love, renew thy force, be it not said
  57. 57Sonnet 57: Being your slave, what should I do but tend
  58. 58Sonnet 58: That god forbid, that made me first your slave
  59. 59Sonnet 59: If there be nothing new, but that which is
  60. 60Sonnet 60: Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore
  61. 61Sonnet 61: Is it thy will thy image should keep open
  62. 62Sonnet 62: Sin of self-love possesseth all mine eye3
  63. 63Sonnet 63: Against my love shall be, as I am now
  64. 64Sonnet 64: When I have seen by Time's fell hand defaced
  65. 65Sonnet 65: Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea1
  66. 66Sonnet 66: Tired with all these, for restful death I cry
  67. 67Sonnet 67: Ah, wherefore with infection should he live
  68. 68Sonnet 68: Thus is his cheek the map of days outworn
  69. 69Sonnet 69: Those parts of thee that the world's eye doth view
  70. 70Sonnet 70: That thou art blamed shall not be thy defect
  71. 71Sonnet 71: No longer mourn for me when I am dead
  72. 72Sonnet 72: O, lest the world should task you to recite
  73. 73Sonnet 73: That time of year thou mayst in me behold2
  74. 74Sonnet 74: But be contented when that fell arrest
  75. 75Sonnet 75: So are you to my thoughts as food to life
  76. 76Sonnet 76: Why is my verse so barren of new pride?
  77. 77Sonnet 77: Thy glass will show thee how thy beauties wear
  78. 78Sonnet 78: So oft have I invoked thee for my Muse
  79. 79Sonnet 79: Whilst I alone did call upon thy aid
  80. 80Sonnet 80: O, how I faint when I of you do write
  81. 81Sonnet 81: Or I shall live your epitaph to make
  82. 82Sonnet 82: I grant thou wert not married to my Muse
  83. 83Sonnet 83: I never saw that you did painting need
  84. 84Sonnet 84: Who is it that says most, which can say more
  85. 85Sonnet 85: My tongue-tied Muse in manners holds her still
  86. 86Sonnet 86: Was it the proud full sail of his great verse
  87. 87Sonnet 87: Farewell! Thou art too dear for my possessing
  88. 88Sonnet 88: When thou shalt be disposed to set me light
  89. 89Sonnet 89: Say that thou didst forsake me for some fault
  90. 90Sonnet 90: Then hate me when thou wilt; if ever, now
  91. 91Sonnet 91: Some glory in their birth, some in their skill2
  92. 92Sonnet 92: But do thy worst to steal thy self away
  93. 93Sonnet 93: So shall I live, supposing thou art true
  94. 94Sonnet 94: They that have power to hurt and will do none1
  95. 95Sonnet 95: How sweet and lovely dost thou make the shame
  96. 96Sonnet 96: Some say thy fault is youth, some wantonness
  97. 97Sonnet 97: How like a winter hath my absence been
  98. 98Sonnet 98: From you have I been absent in the spring
  99. 99Sonnet 99: The forward violet thus did I chide
  100. 100Sonnet 100: Where art thou, Muse, that thou forget'st so long
  101. 101Sonnet 101: O truant Muse, what shall be thy amends
  102. 102Sonnet 102: My love is strengthened, though more weak in seeming
  103. 103Sonnet 103: Alack, what poverty my Muse brings forth
  104. 104Sonnet 104: To me, fair friend, you never can be old1
  105. 105Sonnet 105: Let not my love be called idolatry1
  106. 106Sonnet 106: When in the chronicle of wasted time
  107. 107Sonnet 107: Not mine own fears, nor the prophetic soul
  108. 108Sonnet 108: What's in the brain that ink may character
  109. 109Sonnet 109: O, never say that I was false of heart
  110. 110Sonnet 110: Alas, 'tis true, I have gone here and there
  111. 111Sonnet 111: O, for my sake do you with Fortune chide
  112. 112Sonnet 112: Your love and pity doth th' impression fill1
  113. 113Sonnet 113: Since I left you, mine eye is in my mind
  114. 114Sonnet 114: Or whether doth my mind, being crowned with you
  115. 115Sonnet 115: Those lines that I before have writ do lie
  116. 116Sonnet 116: Let me not to the marriage of true minds2
  117. 117Sonnet 117: Accuse me thus: that I have scanted all
  118. 118Sonnet 118: Like as to make our appetite more keen
  119. 119Sonnet 119: What potions have I drunk of Siren tears
  120. 120Sonnet 120: That you were once unkind befriends me now
  121. 121Sonnet 121: Tis better to be vile than vile esteemed
  122. 122Sonnet 122: Thy gift, thy tables, are within my brain
  123. 123Sonnet 123: No, Time, thou shalt not boast that I do change
  124. 124Sonnet 124: If my dear love were but the child of state
  125. 125Sonnet 125: Were't aught to me I bore the canopy
  126. 126Sonnet 126: O thou, my lovely boy, who in thy power
  127. 127Sonnet 127: In the old age black was not counted fair
  128. 128Sonnet 128: How oft, when thou, my music, music play'st
  129. 129Sonnet 129: Th' expense of spirit in a waste of shame1
  130. 130Sonnet 130: My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun10
  131. 131Sonnet 131: Thou art as tyrannous, so as thou art
  132. 132Sonnet 132: Thine eyes I love, and they, as pitying me
  133. 133Sonnet 133: Beshrew that heart that makes my heart to groan
  134. 134Sonnet 134: So, now I have confessed that he is thine
  135. 135Sonnet 135: Whoever hath her wish, thou hast thy will
  136. 136Sonnet 136: If thy soul check thee that I come so near
  137. 137Sonnet 137: Thou blind fool, Love, what dost thou to mine eyes
  138. 138Sonnet 138: When my love swears that she is made of truth
  139. 139Sonnet 139: O, call not me to justify the wrong
  140. 140Sonnet 140: Be wise as thou art cruel; do not press
  141. 141Sonnet 141: In faith, I do not love thee with mine eyes2
  142. 142Sonnet 142: Love is my sin, and thy dear virtue hate
  143. 143Sonnet 143: Lo, as a careful huswife runs to catch1
  144. 144Sonnet 144: Two loves I have, of comfort and despair
  145. 145Sonnet 145: Those lips that Love's own hand did make2
  146. 146Sonnet 146: Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth
  147. 147Sonnet 147: My love is as a fever, longing still
  148. 148Sonnet 148: O me! what eyes hath love put in my head
  149. 149Sonnet 149: Canst thou, O cruel, say I love thee not
  150. 150Sonnet 150: O from what power hast thou this powerful might
  151. 151Sonnet 151: Love is too young to know what conscience is
  152. 152Sonnet 152: In loving thee thou know'st I am forsworn
  153. 153Sonnet 153: Cupid laid by his brand and fell asleep
  154. 154Sonnet 154: The little Love-god lying once asleep
Other poems · 1