Contents

Preface

William Shakespeare

SONNETS

Sonnet 1 - From fairest creatures we desire increase

Sonnet 2 - When forty winters shall besiege thy brow

Sonnet 3 - Look in thy glass, and tell the face thou viewest

Sonnet 4 - Unthrifty loveliness, why dost thou spend

Sonnet 5 - Those hours, that with gentle work did frame

Sonnet 6 - Then let not winter's ragged hand deface

Sonnet 7 - Lo! in the orient when the gracious light

Sonnet 8 - Music to hear, why hear'st thou music sadly?

Sonnet 9 - Is it for fear to wet a widow's eye

Sonnet 10 - For shame! deny that thou bear'st love to any

Sonnet 11 - As fast as thou shalt wane, so fast thou grow'st

Sonnet 12 - When I do count the clock that tells the time

Sonnet 13 - O! that you were your self; but, love you are

Sonnet 14 - Not from the stars do I my judgement pluck

Sonnet 15 - When I consider every thing that grows

Sonnet 16 - But wherefore do not you a mightier way

Sonnet 17 - Who will believe my verse in time to come

Sonnet 18 - Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

Sonnet 19 - Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion's paws

Sonnet 20 - A woman's face with nature's own hand painted

Sonnet 21 - So is it not with me as with that Muse

Sonnet 22 - My glass shall not persuade me I am old

Sonnet 23 - As an unperfect actor on the stage

Sonnet 24 - Mine eye hath play'd the painter and hath steel'd

Sonnet 25 - Let those who are in favour with their stars

Sonnet 26 - Lord of my love, to whom in vassalage

Sonnet 27 - Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed

Sonnet 28 - How can I then return in happy plight

Sonnet 29 - When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes

Sonnet 30 - When to the sessions of sweet silent thought

Sonnet 31 - Thy bosom is endeared with all hearts

Sonnet 32 - If thou survive my well-contented day

Sonnet 33 - Full many a glorious morning have I seen

Sonnet 34 - Why didst thou promise such a beauteous day

Sonnet 35 - No more be griev'd at that which thou hast done

Sonnet 36 - Let me confess that we two must be twain

Sonnet 37 - As a decrepit father takes delight

Sonnet 38 - How can my Muse want subject to invent

Sonnet 39 - O! how thy worth with manners may I sing

Sonnet 40 - Take all my loves, my love, yea take them all

Sonnet 41 - Those pretty wrongs that liberty commits

Sonnet 42 - That thou hast her it is not all my grief

Sonnet 43 - When most I wink, then do mine eyes best see

Sonnet 44 - If the dull substance of my flesh were thought

Sonnet 45 - The other two, slight air, and purging fire

Sonnet 46 - Mine eye and heart are at a mortal war

Sonnet 47 - Betwixt mine eye and heart a league is took

Sonnet 48 - How careful was I when I took my way

Sonnet 49 - Against that time, if ever that time come

Sonnet 50 - How heavy do I journey on the way

Sonnet 51 - Thus can my love excuse the slow offence

Sonnet 52 - So am I as the rich, whose blessed key

Sonnet 53 - What is your substance, whereof are you made

Sonnet 54 - O! how much more doth beauty beauteous seem

Sonnet 55 - Not marble, nor the gilded monuments

Sonnet 56 - Sweet love, renew thy force; be it not said

Sonnet 57 - Being your slave what should I do but tend

Sonnet 58 - That god forbid, that made me first your slave

Sonnet 59 - If there be nothing new, but that which is

Sonnet 60 - Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore

Sonnet 61 - Is it thy will, thy image should keep open

Sonnet 62 - Sin of self-love possesseth all mine eye

Sonnet 63 - Against my love shall be as I am now

Sonnet 64 - When I have seen by Time's fell hand defac'd

Sonnet 65 - Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea

Sonnet 66 - Tired with all these, for restful death I cry

Sonnet 67 - Ah! wherefore with infection should he live

Sonnet 68 - Thus is his cheek the map of days outworn

Sonnet 69 - Those parts of thee that the world's eye doth view

Sonnet 70 - That thou art blam'd shall not be thy defect

Sonnet 71 - No longer mourn for me when I am dead

Sonnet 72 - O! lest the world should task you to recite

Sonnet 73 - That time of year thou mayst in me behold

Sonnet 74 - But be contented when that fell arrest

Sonnet 75 - So are you to my thoughts as food to life

Sonnet 76 - Why is my verse so barren of new pride

Sonnet 77 - Thy glass will show thee how thy beauties wear

Sonnet 78 - So oft have I invoked thee for my Muse

Sonnet 79 - Whilst I alone did call upon thy aid

Sonnet 80 - O! how I faint when I of you do write

Sonnet 81 - Or I shall live your epitaph to make

Sonnet 82 - I grant thou wert not married to my Muse

Sonnet 83 - I never saw that you did painting need

Sonnet 84 - Who is it that says most, which can say more

Sonnet 85 - My tongue-tied Muse in manners holds her still

Sonnet 86 - Was it the proud full sail of his great verse

Sonnet 87 - Farewell! thou art too dear for my possessing

Sonnet 88 - When thou shalt be dispos'd to set me light

Sonnet 89 - Say that thou didst forsake me for some fault

Sonnet 90 - Then hate me when thou wilt; if ever, now

Sonnet 91 - Some glory in their birth, some in their skill

Sonnet 92 - But do thy worst to steal thyself away

Sonnet 93 - So shall I live, supposing thou art true

Sonnet 94 - They that have power to hurt, and will do none

Sonnet 95 - How sweet and lovely dost thou make the shame

Sonnet 96 - Some say thy fault is youth, some wantonness

Sonnet 97 - How like a winter hath my absence been

Sonnet 98 - From you have I been absent in the spring

Sonnet 99 - The forward violet thus did I chide

Sonnet 100 - Where art thou Muse that thou forget'st so long

Sonnet 101 - O truant Muse what shall be thy amends

Sonnet 102 - My love is strengthened, though more weak in seeming

Sonnet 103 - Alack! what poverty my Muse brings forth

Sonnet 104 - To me, fair friend, you never can be old

Sonnet 105 - Let not my love be call'd idolatry

Sonnet 106 - When in the chronicle of wasted time

Sonnet 107 - Not mine own fears, nor the prophetic soul

Sonnet 108 - What's in the brain, that ink may character

Sonnet 109 - O! never say that I was false of heart

Sonnet 110 - Alas! 'tis true, I have gone here and there

Sonnet 111 - O! for my sake do you with Fortune chide

Sonnet 112 - Your love and pity doth the impression fill

Sonnet 113 - Since I left you, mine eye is in my mind

Sonnet 114 - Or whether doth my mind, being crown'd with you

Sonnet 115 - Those lines that I before have writ do lie

Sonnet 116 - Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Sonnet 117 - Accuse me thus: that I have scanted all

Sonnet 118 - Like as, to make our appetite more keen

Sonnet 119 - What potions have I drunk of Siren tears

Sonnet 120 - That you were once unkind befriends me now

Sonnet 121 - 'Tis better to be vile than vile esteem'd

Sonnet 122 - Thy gift, thy tables, are within my brain

Sonnet 123 - No, Time, thou shalt not boast that I do change

Sonnet 124 - If my dear love were but the child of state

Sonnet 125 - Were't aught to me I bore the canopy

Sonnet 126 - O thou, my lovely boy, who in thy power

Sonnet 127 - In the old age black was not counted fair

Sonnet 128 - How oft when thou, my music, music play'st

Sonnet 129 - The expense of spirit in a waste of shame

Sonnet 130 - My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun

Sonnet 131 - Thou art as tyrannous, so as thou art

Sonnet 132 - Thine eyes I love, and they, as pitying me

Sonnet 133 - Beshrew that heart that makes my heart to groan

Sonnet 134 - So, now I have confess'd that he is thine

Sonnet 135 - Whoever hath her wish, thou hast thy Will

Sonnet 136 - If thy soul check thee that I come so near

Sonnet 137 - Thou blind fool, Love, what dost thou to mine eyes

Sonnet 138 - When my love swears that she is made of truth

Sonnet 139 - O! call not me to justify the wrong

Sonnet 140 - Be wise as thou art cruel; do not press

Sonnet 141 - In faith I do not love thee with mine eyes

Sonnet 142 - Love is my sin, and thy dear virtue hate

Sonnet 143 - Lo, as a careful housewife runs to catch

Sonnet 144 - Two loves I have of comfort and despair

Sonnet 145 - Those lips that Love's own hand did make

Sonnet 146 - Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth

Sonnet 147 - My love is as a fever longing still

Sonnet 148 - O me! what eyes hath love put in my head

Sonnet 149 - Canst thou, O cruel! say I love thee not

Sonnet 150 - O! from what power hast thou this powerful might

Sonnet 151 - Love is too young to know what conscience is

Sonnet 152 - In loving thee thou know'st I am forsworn

Sonnet 153 - Cupid laid by his brand and fell asleep

Sonnet 154 - The little Love-god lying once asleep