sonnets-english

«Thou art as tyrannous, so as thou art, As those whose beauties proudly make them cruel».  The poet […]

«My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun; Coral is far more red than her lips’ red».  Sonnet […]

«The expense of spirit in a waste of shame Is lust in action; and till action, lust».  The […]

«How oft, when thou, my music, music play’st, Upon that blessed wood whose motion sounds».  Sonnet 128 is […]

«In the old age black was not counted fair, Or if it were, it bore not beauty’s name».  […]

«O thou, my lovely boy, who in thy power Dost hold Time’s fickle glass, his sickle, hour».  Sonnet […]

«Were ‘t aught to me I bore the canopy, With my extern the outward honouring’».  For the poet, […]

«If my dear love were but the child of state, It might for Fortune’s bastard be unfather’d’».  Developing […]

«No, Time, thou shalt not boast that I do change: Thy pyramids built up with newer might».  The […]

«Thy gift, thy tables, are within my brain Full character’d with lasting memory».  Just as the poet gave […]

«‘Tis better to be vile than vile esteem’d, When not to be receives reproach of being».  The poet […]

«That you were once unkind befriends me now, And for that sorrow which I then did feel».  The […]

«What potions have I drunk of Siren tears, Distill’d from limbecks foul as hell within».  Arguing that his […]

«Like as, to make our appetites more keen, With eager compounds we our palate urge».  The poet now […]

«Accuse me thus: that I have scanted all Wherein I should your great deserts repay».  The poet abruptly […]

«Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments. Love is not love».  Despite the confessional […]

«Those lines that I before have writ do lie, Even those that said I could not love you […]

«Or whether doth my mind, being crown’d with you, Drink up the monarch’s plague, this flattery?».  Continuing the […]

«Since I left you, mine eye is in my mind; And that which governs me to go about».  […]

«Your love and pity doth the impression fill Which vulgar scandal stamp’d upon my brow».  The first two […]

«O, for my sake do you with Fortune chide, The guilty goddess of my harmful deeds».  Sonnet 111 […]

«Alas, ‘tis true I have gone here and there And made myself a motley to the view».  The […]

«O, never say that I was false of heart, Though absence seem’d my flame to qualify».  Sonnet 109 […]

«What’s in the brain that ink may character Which hath not figured to thee my true spirit?».  Admitting […]