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5th out of 217 books
—
119 voters
Love Poems and Sonnets
The greatest sonnets ever written, by the greatest poet and playwright in the English language--now in a handsome edition featuring exquisite color illustrations.
Hardcover, 160 pages
Published
September 3rd 1957
by Doubleday
(first published 1609)
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3,000)
Shakespeare's Sonnet XVIII (abridged)
You're hot.
But not as hot as this poem.
Shakespeare's Sonnet CXVI (abridged)
I'll love you even when you are sixty four
Or my name's not Heather Mills.
Shakespeare's Sonnet XCIV (abridged)
Stay cool man. Peace.
Like, flower power, y'know?
You're hot.
But not as hot as this poem.
Shakespeare's Sonnet CXVI (abridged)
I'll love you even when you are sixty four
Or my name's not Heather Mills.
Shakespeare's Sonnet XCIV (abridged)
Stay cool man. Peace.
Like, flower power, y'know?
Nov 16, 2009
David
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommended to David by:
david-giltinan@sbcglobal.net
Shelves:
poetry,
read-in-2009
SHAKESPEARE WANTS YOU TO BREED!!!!
The first 17 or so sonnets in the series left me taken aback. It's right there in the first line of Sonnet #1:
1. From fairest creatures we desire increase
That thereby beauty's Rose might never die
But as the riper should be time decease
His tender heir might bear his memory
There's this obsession with propagating the species. This concern about breeding dominates the first 17 sonnets in the series, something I had not been aware of before.
2. ...
How much more pra...more
The first 17 or so sonnets in the series left me taken aback. It's right there in the first line of Sonnet #1:
1. From fairest creatures we desire increase
That thereby beauty's Rose might never die
But as the riper should be time decease
His tender heir might bear his memory
There's this obsession with propagating the species. This concern about breeding dominates the first 17 sonnets in the series, something I had not been aware of before.
2. ...
How much more pra...more
13 likes · like · see review
Jul 30, 2012
Jennie
rated it
1 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
important-but-craptastic
For once I think I'm glad that I don't have much of a following because otherwise I'm pretty sure I'd get some serious hate mail for this one. There is no easy way to say this so I'm just going to jump in.
I hate Shakespeare's sonnets. There is no easy way to say it and I'm pretty sure it might make me some two bit hack of a reader, but it's the damn truth. All I could think while reading them was that it was a good thing the man could write a play because he wasn't much of a poet. I hate these...more
I hate Shakespeare's sonnets. There is no easy way to say it and I'm pretty sure it might make me some two bit hack of a reader, but it's the damn truth. All I could think while reading them was that it was a good thing the man could write a play because he wasn't much of a poet. I hate these...more
4 likes · like · see review
Jan 31, 2008
Abigail
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Readers...
Shelves:
literature-classics,
poetry
Review Temporarily Removed.
3 likes · like · see review
Aug 22, 2007
Frederick
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Anybody willing to read it.
Shelves:
poetry,
shakespeare
I announce first that I've only read about a third of Shakespeare's sonnets. But I do feel I may make a valid point. While the sonnets, with virtually no varying texts, are very pure compared to the plays, which exist in many editions, nevertheless, Shakespeare's personality is stamped on the plays, not the sonnets.
Okay, now that the scholars have stopped reading this review, let's tell the truth: As brilliant as the sonnets are, as carved in marble as they seem to be, if the plays didn't exist...more
Okay, now that the scholars have stopped reading this review, let's tell the truth: As brilliant as the sonnets are, as carved in marble as they seem to be, if the plays didn't exist...more
1 like · like · see review
Two passions dwell in poet's heart
Two desperate obsessions are reflected through his art
Those are two characters from Shakespeare's poetry triangle:
The dark skinned lady and the man of fair skin
His charm is gentle and she's a striking beauty queen
Three lives, three loves in chains of jealousy are fatally entangled
Did two conspire secretly behind the poet's back
Betraying him two times, which caused his soul to wreck ?
Two desperate obsessions are reflected through his art
Those are two characters from Shakespeare's poetry triangle:
The dark skinned lady and the man of fair skin
His charm is gentle and she's a striking beauty queen
Three lives, three loves in chains of jealousy are fatally entangled
Did two conspire secretly behind the poet's back
Betraying him two times, which caused his soul to wreck ?
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
I loved rereading the sonnets. I read a different edition (one that includes other poems I haven't read), but one of my students brought this edition in to office hours. In class, I gave a presentation on sonnet 130, blazon poetry, and Shakespeare's diverse, outlandish (a la Gascoigne) garden (a comparison of 130 with 99--the dark lady with the young man). I also wrote this prompt:
“O, know, sweet love, I always write of you”
How is the language of the sonnets reflected in the love poetry of a tra...more
“O, know, sweet love, I always write of you”
How is the language of the sonnets reflected in the love poetry of a tra...more
This is one of the greatest works of literature in the English language, so on that score it merits 5 stars but not all editions are equal. The sonnets are dense and complex and surrounded by difficult and contentious problems of origin and publication, meaning and interpretation, textual corruption and correction, sexuality issues- it goes on. To appreciate them, requires slow and carefull reading with a competant guide. My favorites are Duncan-Jones ( this edition) and David West who is a clas...more
I liked these much more than I expected to. Some favorites are: 23, 27,29, 40, 44, 53, 69, 73, 75, 76, 77, 79, 90, 92, 105, 106, 121.
Some favorite quatrains/couplets are:
That of thy beauty do I question mke,
That thou among the wastes of time must go,
Since sweets and beauties do themselves forsake,
and die as fast as they see others grow,
- 12
When most I wink, then do mine eyes best see,
For all the day they view things unrespected,
But when I sleep, in dreams they look on thee
And, darkly bright, a...more
Some favorite quatrains/couplets are:
That of thy beauty do I question mke,
That thou among the wastes of time must go,
Since sweets and beauties do themselves forsake,
and die as fast as they see others grow,
- 12
When most I wink, then do mine eyes best see,
For all the day they view things unrespected,
But when I sleep, in dreams they look on thee
And, darkly bright, a...more
Over my years of teaching, I have memorized a couple dozen of these sonnets, on my morning walks. Some I learned in a two-mile walk,
like the one on his own writing, "Why is my verse so barren of new pride?"(76). Others I have had to re-memorize every time I teach it,
like "Some glory in their birth, some in their skill," (91). Their imbedded mnemonics vary greatly. When I have required Shakespeare classes
to memorize a couple, students would often pick very difficult ones, not knowing they varied...more
like the one on his own writing, "Why is my verse so barren of new pride?"(76). Others I have had to re-memorize every time I teach it,
like "Some glory in their birth, some in their skill," (91). Their imbedded mnemonics vary greatly. When I have required Shakespeare classes
to memorize a couple, students would often pick very difficult ones, not knowing they varied...more
Mar 15, 2012
Bryn Hammond
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
poets-playwrights
In fact I have her 2012 update with the rose on the cover, but I can't find that. I like how the page numbers are the sonnet's number; so page 38 is the double spread of notes on the left hand and Sonnet 38 big and black and uncluttered on the right hand page. It's set up so you can ignore the notes (except when she can't fit them on the left hand page and infiltrates the right). Happy with this edition, the Arden Third.
I've sworn to get (re-)acquainted with these sonnets as they deserve, and d...more
I've sworn to get (re-)acquainted with these sonnets as they deserve, and d...more
I like a lot of Shakespeare. I enjoy his plays, especially when I see them performed. But I find it much harder for the sonnets to reach me. For one thing (and this is my issue not the author's obviously) but I feel the archaic language is a little harder to reach here because there is no one reacting to it. However, even if that were not the case, if you were to modernize these poems it would be clear that they are pretty much sappy moanings of a guy with relationship issues. I got really bored...more
I have always had a special fondness for the Sonnets. They are very complex, abstract, sexual, private, ripe with forbidden fruits and forbidden love, homosexual, love tirangles, oh my! No scholar really understands them - perhaps that adds to their appeal.
Quotes
When forty winters shall besiege thy brow, / And dig deep trenches in thy beauty's field. 2
For thou art much too fair, / To be death's conquest and make worms thine heir. 6
Is it for fear to wet a widow's eye / That thou consum'st thysel...more
Jul 18, 2009
Erik Graff
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
English speakers
Recommended to Erik by:
Harriet J. Naden
Shelves:
poetry
We had a lot of Shakespeare in high school, reading many of his plays, seeing them performed on stage or in film. We also had a lot of poetry, mostly classical stuff, ee cummings being about as modern or far out as the English Department dared go. That was fine by me. I've ever been thankful for being forced to read Pope, Keats, Shelley, Yeats, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Burns, Blake, Dickinson et cetera while I was young. We kids ourselves passed around the moderns...
While my favorites back then we...more
While my favorites back then we...more
2 likes · like · see review
Well... I decided to read this book because we had a lesson at Universal Literature about Shakespeare's sonnets. We read like two of them and I was kind of interested in Shakespeare's mind because we learnt that he dedicated his sonnets to Dark Lady and to the Fair Youth and I wanted to know more. So I started reading his sonnets and there's a bunch I love.
The first sonnet that atracted me was Sonnet 14. I liked it because it was about astrology mainly, which I love. I loved that he wanted to cr...more
The first sonnet that atracted me was Sonnet 14. I liked it because it was about astrology mainly, which I love. I loved that he wanted to cr...more
(See Trevor's review. I already have a Compete Shakespeare, but annotations are sweet. Actually, the in-text annotations done as footnotes can be really annoying, since I keep getting waylaid glancing down at them to see if there is something I'm missing, but after a lifetime of reading Shakespeare I'm comfortable with the lingo. So mostly they just yank me out of the flow of the language. Currently also a curse in my reading of Milton. But those introductions that provide historical background...more
Jan 14, 2013
Lolita
is currently reading it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
william-shakespeare,
poetry
Shall I compare thee to a Summers day?
Thou art more louely and more temperate:
Rough windes do shake the darling buds of Maie,
And Sommers lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heauen shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm’d,
And euery faire from faire some-time declines,
By chance, or natures changing course vntrim’d:
But thy eternall Sommer shall not fade,
Nor loose possession of that faire thou ow’st,
Nor shall death brag thou wandr’st in his shade,
When in eternall lines...more
Excellent work, though reading dozens of poems on the same topic gets tiresome after a while. Shakespeare's decision to write in 3 quatrains followed by a rhyming couplet instead of the traditional 8 line/6 line form gives his sonnets an appealing cadence, and his choice to completely do away with the Petrarchian convention of whining incessantly about unrequited love was refreshing.
I finally finished Romeo and Juliet in my Brit Lit class (thank God!) Oddly enough, when I was looking to escape Shakespeare, I found this book of his sonnets at a rummage sale. It was simply meant to be.
Here's the thing I don't like about Shakespeare. He goes on and on about the beauty of his love, but that's all he talks about. Is she only a pretty face? Does she have a sense of humor? Is she kind? Smart? Anything but beautiful. Though this doesn't diminish the beauty of his writing, I do w...more
Here's the thing I don't like about Shakespeare. He goes on and on about the beauty of his love, but that's all he talks about. Is she only a pretty face? Does she have a sense of humor? Is she kind? Smart? Anything but beautiful. Though this doesn't diminish the beauty of his writing, I do w...more
I liked this edition that had the original text, then on the facing page had the sonnet 'translated' into more modern prose, and had a section discussing and describing the most important lines.
It was a good way to get a better understanding of the sonnets, most of which would have gone over my head without the extra background provided.
It was a good way to get a better understanding of the sonnets, most of which would have gone over my head without the extra background provided.
Being one that is a lover of poetry and writer of it, I have enjoyed reading again Shakespeare's Sonnets. In school, however, I never cared at all for literature much, poetry being one of them. After my wife and I started homeschooling our daughter in 2008, me and my entire loves reading and writing poetry. My style is similar to his, as well as other of the Old Dead Poets.
The darker and melancholy Sonnets are my favourites. I have been able to see where other poets were influenced, in part, by...more
The darker and melancholy Sonnets are my favourites. I have been able to see where other poets were influenced, in part, by...more
"Full many a glorious morning have I seen
Flatter the mountain-tops with sovereign eye,
Kissing with golden face the meadows green,
Gilding pale streams with heavenly alchemy;
Anon permit the basest clouds to ride
With ugly rack on his celestial face,
And from the forlorn world his visage hide,
Stealing unseen to west with this disgrace:
Even so my sun one early morn did shine
With all triumphant splendor on my brow;
But out, alack! he was but one hour mine,
The region cloud hath mask'd him from me...more
Flatter the mountain-tops with sovereign eye,
Kissing with golden face the meadows green,
Gilding pale streams with heavenly alchemy;
Anon permit the basest clouds to ride
With ugly rack on his celestial face,
And from the forlorn world his visage hide,
Stealing unseen to west with this disgrace:
Even so my sun one early morn did shine
With all triumphant splendor on my brow;
But out, alack! he was but one hour mine,
The region cloud hath mask'd him from me...more
Everyone should carry around a tattered paperback copy of the sonnets. You never know when they will be needed.
"Music to hear, why hear’st thou music sadly?
Sweets with sweets war not, joy delights in joy.
Why lov’st thou that which thou receiv’st not gladly,
Or else receiv’st with pleasure thine annoy?
If the true concord of well-tunèd sounds,
By unions married, do offend thine ear,
They do but sweetly chide thee, who confounds
In singleness the parts that thou shouldst bear.
Mark how one string, sweet...more
"Music to hear, why hear’st thou music sadly?
Sweets with sweets war not, joy delights in joy.
Why lov’st thou that which thou receiv’st not gladly,
Or else receiv’st with pleasure thine annoy?
If the true concord of well-tunèd sounds,
By unions married, do offend thine ear,
They do but sweetly chide thee, who confounds
In singleness the parts that thou shouldst bear.
Mark how one string, sweet...more
I’m going to do this review pretty informally because I don’t read a whole lot of poetry and so don’t have a very good standard for comparison. However, as we’re getting down to the wire for finishing 2012 challenges, I needed to read some poetry for the Around the Stack in How Many Ways genre challenge. I’ve always loved Shakespeare and the sonnets were free for kindle, so here we are
At the beginning especially, I found the sonnets harder to follow than the plays. They have less of a plot and...more
Feb 17, 2011
Nadine
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
poetry-and-plays,
2011-challenge
I enjoyed reading these for the most part. I mean, I wouldn't go out of my way to read them again, but I'm still giving it 4 stars because who am I to give Shakespeare less than 4 stars? A lot of them were on the theme of "I love you so much, so I am going to write this poem so that you will live on in eternity", which they did, but we don't actually know who he is writing about so he's kind of a liar. My favourites were 71, 91, 105, and 109. I made that list so I knew which ones to go back and...more
I like the plays, I understand them. I just couldn't do this. I'm not a poet and I have not the talent in the field of old English either. I shant be bothered by such ridiculous devianceies.
I'll stick to your stories Will.
I'll stick to your stories Will.
Jan 27, 2010
Angela Alcorn
marked it as to-read
The complete works of Shakespeare (including all the plays, sonnets and poems) are available free to read/download/print here:
http://www.opensourceshakespeare.org/
http://www.opensourceshakespeare.org/
They may exist, but I've never read any better words than these:
When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possess'd,
Desiring this man's art and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
L...more
When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possess'd,
Desiring this man's art and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
L...more
Title in portuguese: Imagem da Poesia Europeia – II
(org_David Mourão-Ferreira),
in Colóquio Letras, 168/169 – Jul/Dez' 2004,
Fundação C. Gulbenkian ed.
Lisboa
- Soneto CXVI, William Shakespeare, (trad_ Luís Cardim) p. 174
- a book purchased by me.
- a vital and intense reading.
- an intense love sonet to Lady Dark.
notes.
William Shakespeare’s 154 Sonets (1609);
between 1590 – 1598;
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare,
(Helen Trayler)
The Shakespeare Head Press, Oxford, Ed./
Wordsworth Library Collec...more
(org_David Mourão-Ferreira),
in Colóquio Letras, 168/169 – Jul/Dez' 2004,
Fundação C. Gulbenkian ed.
Lisboa
- Soneto CXVI, William Shakespeare, (trad_ Luís Cardim) p. 174
- a book purchased by me.
- a vital and intense reading.
- an intense love sonet to Lady Dark.
notes.
William Shakespeare’s 154 Sonets (1609);
between 1590 – 1598;
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare,
(Helen Trayler)
The Shakespeare Head Press, Oxford, Ed./
Wordsworth Library Collec...more
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Favourite Sonnet? | 26 | 87 | May 19, 2013 07:36am | |
| Classics Without ...: Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day? | 2 | 37 | Apr 02, 2013 09:23am | |
| The Most Awesome ...: The Sonnets | 2 | 3 | Jan 22, 2013 03:44pm | |
| Shakespeare Fans: The Sonnets | 20 | 51 | Sep 03, 2012 09:20am | |
| Sonnets | 4 | 32 | Mar 05, 2012 06:45am |
William Shakespeare (baptised 26 April 1564) was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "The Bard"). His surviving works consist of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. His plays have been tr...more
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“Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And too often is his gold complexion dimm'd:
And every fair from fair sometimes declines,
By chance or natures changing course untrimm'd;
By thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this and this gives life to thee.”
—
743 people liked it
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And too often is his gold complexion dimm'd:
And every fair from fair sometimes declines,
By chance or natures changing course untrimm'd;
By thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this and this gives life to thee.”
“Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove.
O no, it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wand'ring bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken."
(Sonnet 116)”
—
310 people liked it
More quotes…
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove.
O no, it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wand'ring bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken."
(Sonnet 116)”
Jun 08, 2011 05:48pm
updated Jun 08, 2011 10:38pm